Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has issued guidance to the Department of Work and Pensions on welfare benefit entitlement for individuals who have missed the EU Settlement Scheme application deadline of 30 June 2021.

Access to benefits for non-UK nationals depends on their immigration status. EEA and Swiss nationals, and their family members, resident in the UK at the end of the transition period need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to maintain entitlement to taxpayer funded benefits.

Those currently receiving benefits will not see their payments stop automatically from 1 July. However, it is important that anyone eligible who hasn’t applied to the EUSS does so quickly to ensure that benefit payments don’t stop.

Further information can be found here - https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2020/07/02/media-factsheet-eu-settlement-scheme/

We are working with the Home Office and HM Revenue and Customs to identify existing benefit claimants who have yet to apply for status under the EUSS. Letters had been issued to encourage existing benefit recipients to apply to the EUSS to protect their existing rights in the UK before the deadline.

The Home Office will shortly be writing to benefit recipients who have still not applied for a status, giving a further 28 days to apply, after which the department will be notified of those recipients who have still not applied.

Detailed guidance will be issued through our Advice to Decision Makers in due course - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-for-decision-making-staff-guide