Rights of EU nationals in the event of No Deal Brexit

Hi Daniel,

I signed up to the governments mailing list for updates on this and the one I received last week said that in the event of a no deal the EU Settlement Scheme will still be implemented which will enable EU citizens and their families living in the UK by 29th March 2019 to continue to work and study and access services in the UK on the same basis as they do at the moment. The only thing they suggested would be different is that the deadline for applications would be brought forward to 31st December 2020.

If you go on the gov.uk website there is plenty of information: www.gov.uk/.../rights-eu-eea-citizens

They also have an employer toolkit online as well and you can sign up for email updates.

Hi Gemma, thanks for your response. My understanding from the current CIPD guidance was that anyone who enters the country during the transition period to December 2020 will be able to stay, even in the event of No Deal. That deadline seems to have been pulled forward to 29th March 2019:

"The Home Office’s indication to the CIPD is that free movement will effectively continue during the transitional period between March 2019 and December 2020; as currently set out in the draft agreement between the EU and the UK."

www.cipd.co.uk/.../eu-citizens-rights-brexit

Everything is so up in the air at the moment it's hard to know what will happen, but clearly there's a bit of a disconnect between the CIPD guidance and elsewhere.

thanks Steve. It reads like it's effective even in the event of No Deal. I work for a company with a number of EU nationals so it would be good to give them some assurance as to what the cut-off date will be.

Hi Daniel,

This is copied from the email update I received:

"The UK Government: Confirms that if there is no deal, the EU Settlement Scheme will continue to be implemented, enabling EU citizens and their family members living in the UK by 29 March 2019 to secure their status and continue to be able to work, study, and access benefits and services in the UK on the same basis after we exit the EU as they do now. The scheme will be fully open by 30 March 2019 as planned. Confirms that the Home Office will continue to look to grant status rather than refuse and in line with the UK commitment to be more generous in certain respects than the draft Withdrawal Agreement, a person will not be refused status under the EU Settlement Scheme because, for example, they are not economically active or they do not hold comprehensive sickness insurance.
There would be some changes to the EU Settlement Scheme if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, and further details are set out in the policy document. In particular, as there will be no agreed implementation period, the application deadline will be brought forward to 31 December 2020."

This is the link to the policy document they refer to: www.gov.uk/.../policy-paper-on-citizens-rights-in-the-event-of-a-no-deal-brexit

Hopefully that helps somewhat. But I would definitely recommend signing up to the updates, it's minimised a lot of "googling" for me :-)

Thanks for this, Gemma.

No problem Steve! Happy to share :-)

many thanks Gemma! I guess we watch this space for now.

many thanks Gemma! I guess we watch this space for now.