Home Office faces legal challenge over EU settlement status granted ‘in error’

The Home Office says it has notified 1,473 people that their pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme was granted in error. The department says their status remains valid until it expires, but will not be extended on that basis. Campaign group the3million is challenging the policy, arguing that affected residents can lose important protections without the safeguards required by the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union.

The figure appeared in a parliamentary answer dated 24 September and covers notifications relating to grants made from the scheme’s introduction in 2018 through 30 June 2026. The Home Office said it was compiled from manual local management records and could be revised. It does not hold a reportable breakdown of how many of those notified have already reached, or are approaching, their status expiry date.

What the Home Office says happens

According to the parliamentary answer, people are given an opportunity to submit evidence that they meet the scheme’s requirements. The department says it does not cancel existing pre-settled status while considering that evidence. Where it maintains that a grant was made in error, the status stays valid until its expiry date but is not extended beyond it.

The Home Office also says it tells affected people they do not meet the requirements to sponsor applications by family members under the settlement scheme. That issue can matter even before a person’s own status expires. The department’s stated position is that people granted pre-settled status in error are not beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement, although they can provide evidence to challenge that assessment.

The legal challenge

The3million said on 28 August that its lawyers at Wilson Solicitors had sent the Home Office a pre-action protocol letter, the formal warning that precedes a possible judicial review. The group said it had given the department 14 days to respond and might take the case to the High Court if the dispute was not resolved. The material available does not establish whether a court claim has since been filed or what response the department gave to that letter.

The group argues that allowing pre-settled status to expire, or telling people with settled status that they cannot sponsor a family member, can remove rights without a formal decision, a proportionality assessment or an appeal against that step. It says this bypasses safeguards in the Withdrawal Agreement. Those are the group’s legal arguments; no ruling on this challenge is established in the available accounts.

The Guardian reported on 27 September that the3million was aware of at least 50 cases. That number describes cases known to the campaign group, not the total notified by the Home Office. The newspaper also reported that some people were told they had not qualified because they did not submit passports with their original applications. Among the cases it described were people with Italian nationality by birth whose nationality at the time of application the department disputed.

Residents describe the stakes

One Italian engineer, identified by the Guardian under the pseudonym Fabio, arrived in London in 2018 for a doctorate and now has settled status. He told the newspaper that the dispute could affect his ability to have his wife living with him. He said the notification was devastating after he and his wife had followed the rules. His account illustrates a concern about family rights; it does not show that all 1,473 people have lost the right to live or work in the UK.

The Guardian also spoke to an NHS worker and doctoral researcher who received an error notification. She said she feared losing her job and having difficulty proving her right to rent her home. These are reported fears about possible consequences, not established outcomes in her case. The Home Office told the newspaper that affected people can provide evidence that they qualify and can submit a further valid settlement scheme application, with an appeal available if it is refused.

The Guardian reported that the Home Office conceded it was wrong in one case before an administrative court. In that case, the department withdrew its position that a claimant’s pre-settled status had been granted in error and accepted that the date she obtained a physical Italian passport did not establish when her citizenship began. The concession concerned that claimant; it does not resolve the broader legal challenge.

Fabio told the Guardian that he and his wife were still awaiting communication from the Home Office about their own case after that concession. He feared that resolving it could cost more than £5,000. The number of people whose status will expire without an extension, the result of any further applications and the outcome of the3million’s proposed challenge remain unclear from the published accounts.