Home Offices launches Brexit toolkit for employers to support EU settlement programme

Employers, industry groups and community groups in the UK will be able to give EU citizens practical advice on how to apply for settled status in the wake of the Brexit vote with the help of a new toolkit published by the Home Office. The toolkit will be published on GOV.UK and contain how-to guides, briefing packs, practical plans, leaflets and posters. The Home Secretary launched the toolkit at the Home Office last night (Tuesday 24 July) at a gathering of some of the UK’s biggest employers of EU citizens, as well as industry bodies, local government agencies and community groups, many of whom played a key part in developing the toolkit.

The Home Secretary said: “Our settlement scheme will offer security and certainty to EU citizens living in the UK. Once the scheme has launched, employers, industry groups and charities will play a vital role in ensuring they can secure their status quickly and easily. The toolkit will help us to reach out to all EU citizens living in this country and help them get their new immigration status.”

Matthew Fell, CBI Chief UK Policy Director, said: “EU workers provide crucial skills and labour to businesses of all sizes and sectors throughout the UK, and pay taxes that help fund public services. Employers have worked with the Government to ensure information about claiming ‘settled status’ is valuable and accessible. We’ll be asking our members to share the new toolkit with everyone who’ll find it useful.”

The settlement scheme will open in a phased way later this year and will be fully open by 30 March 2019. The deadline for applications will be 30 June 2021.

The Home Office claims it will continue to engage with stakeholders, including employers, local authority representatives and community groups, about the detailed design of the scheme as it learns from the first pilot with NHS trusts and universities in the north-west of England starting on 28 August.

More details on how EU citizens and their families can obtain settled status in the UK can be found in the statement of intent. All content will be translated into the core EU 23 languages over the summer.