The Home Office has formally replied to the Independent Monitoring Authority’s damning inquiry into long waits for EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) decisions. Published on 11 June, the 24-page response accepts four of the IMA’s five recommendations and outlines a recovery plan to clear a backlog affecting more than 140,000 applicants. Key measures include hiring 300 extra caseworkers, expanding the telephone Resolution Centre’s opening hours and introducing a triage system for urgent cases such as job offers or mortgage applications. Officials say average decision times should fall from 12 to six weeks by October. For businesses, the delays have created confusion over right-to-work status, with some HR systems unable to verify ‘in-time’ applicants who hold only a digital Certificate of Application. The Home Office pledges to improve data feeds to the Employer Checking Service and issue clearer guidance on the legal protections enjoyed by pending cases. The IMA has reserved the right to seek judicial review if progress stalls, while campaign groups argue that the department should restore physical residence documents to bridge digital-skills gaps among older EU nationals. Although the announcement offers reassurance, global-mobility teams should continue to run manual checks where employer portals fail to populate status correctly. A follow-up report is due in January 2027; failure to meet interim targets could trigger statutory enforcement under the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement.
Source: GOV.UK
