EU Settlement Scheme
After 30th June, all EEA nationals in the UK are required to have applied for Settled or Pre-Settled Status, and without this they will have restricted access to the NHS, education, and the job market. This may affect your business if you employ – or intend to employ – EEA nationals.
If you have already verified the work eligibility of your EEA employees, then there is no requirement for you to have evidence of their Settled Status (either now or after 30th June). Your duty as an employer, effective from 1st July, is to ensure that you verify the Settled Status of any new employees and any current employees whose eligibility to work has not already been checked. Lawyers warn that asking for evidence of Settled Status before the application deadline of 30th June would, in any circumstance, be considered discriminatory.
Bear in mind that after 30th June EEA nationals who don’t have Settled Status may lose their (and their family’s) access to healthcare, education, public funds and pensions. This could result in valued employees having to leave the country and being unable to continue to work for you. For this reason, you could share information with your workforce so that they are aware of the potential consequence of failing to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme. After 1st July you cannot offer employment to EEA nationals who don’t have Settled Status unless you become a sponsoring employer. This may be something for you to consider if you regularly recruit from this demographic and, if so, you should speak to your accountants or to an immigration specialist for guidance. It generally takes 3-4 months to obtain a sponsor licence.
For comprehensive information and advice check out this link and to be able to download a useful leaflet to share with your staff (on a ‘for your information’ only basis). It would also be wise to plan for new checking procedures from 1st July – you will need to ask new recruits for their Settled Status Code and to ask the same of any current employees for whom you have no valid evidence of work eligibility. If you need any help from Ink, please just get in touch.