Overview

• Any EU citizens looking to apply for settlement status in the UK post-Brexit need to know about the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).
• This free scheme grants European Economic Area and Swiss citizens, currently resident in the UK, the right to live, work and access a number of essential services here after December 31, 2020. Irish citizens are exempt and have already been granted the right to remain.
• Only 12% of the applications to the EU Settlement Scheme have come from children aged under 16. But analysis from the Migration Observatory suggests that there were 700,000 EU children under 18 in the UK in 2018, meaning hundreds of thousands of children may still need to apply for settled status or secure British citizenship. If they do not, they risk being left without a lawful status in the UK which means being unable to access education, employment, healthcare, housing and other vital services.