Foreign Born Carers : Residency & Potential Deportation Issues / UK Born Carers Returning To Dear Old Blighty

[Chris From The Gulag]

It does take any reader into areas well outside caring ... but dovetails back into practical solutions for the staffing crisis in both the NHS and social care.

Consider the question WHY ? ... apply that to the " Windrush " generation ... outsiders brought over to fill the lower pay jobs that , for one reason or another , could not be filled by your average Brit.

Fast forward to 2018 ... the ideal solution IF the policies on immigration were different , and all countries could , quite , literally , determine their own.

And , most importantly , what do you do with the now surplus labour bought in when the economic climate is different ... the very essence of the " Windrush " problem ?

Unlike physical goods , one cannot have a garage sale to sell of surplus supplies !

Now , take a step back and consider this from a different prospective.

A business has the opportunity to source a new supply of raw materials , from another country , at a cheaper price.

Any asute business man would welcome that opportunity and complete the purchase.

Now , consider that analogy with the " Windrush " generation , and the reasons why they were encouraged to uproot , and move across to the UK.

Raw materials ... goods and labour ... both needed for greater efficiency ... and also PROFIT ... by the UK.

Don't lose sight of the resentment first shown to the " Windrush " generation , and more recently , to East Europeans ... both ostracized / demonized in certain quarters for taking away British jobs ... and why weren't the Britiah taking those jobs ? ... the answer to which is NOT for this forum.

Even today , zero contracts are fact of life for those towards the bottom of the employment market.

In our world , would make perfect sense for both the NHS and social care to have the labour resources so needed in many areas.

Only one problem beyond the immigration laws ?

We are dealing with human beings as if there were merely " Raw materials " ... just like cheaper goods available abroad.

Sure , there is the minimum wage ... on many manors , the greatest increase in those now needing food banks is from those on the minimum wage.

London / South East ... what does the minimum wage buy you in terms of housing ?

If additional labour is needed , and there is a housing shortage .... ???

A whole jigsaw puzzle with pieces that simply do not fit together no matter how hard you try.

[Chris From The Gulag]

Gwendolyn Banks updates ?

NONE ... as far as I can trace.

For the first ... and last ... time , I'll let The Sun have the last word ... for now.

( APOLOGIES to any readers in the Merseyside area ! )

STARS AND GRIPES Nan, 62, who has lived in UK for 57 years has Universal Credit cut after being deemed American

Gwendolyn Banks, who is legal guardian to her four-year-old granddaughter, moved to England with her parents when she was just five years old

In CarerLand , nobody is forgotten ...

Fifteen minutes of fame ?

Sorry Andy , not in our world !

[Chris From The Gulag]

UK born ex pats now returning to the UK ?

Three links posted on another thread ... the RESIDENCY issue ... when it comes to claiming any benefits / allowances on your return :

CAB : https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benef ... -benefits/

Age UK : https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-ad ... d-heading/

Independent Age ( 30 pages worth in .pdf format ) : https://www.independentage.org/sites/de ... road_0.pdf

I hope that they prove to be of assistance to anyone reading this thread ... even though they do make depressing reading for most.

Working abroad ?

Perhaps a case of ... Auf Wiedersehen , Benefits ?



Good luck to any official in Oz's local job centre when he returns seeking a hand out ???

[Chris From The Gulag]

Warning of legal limbo for 3m EU citizens living in UK after Brexit.

Free movement, housing and social security rights at risk, says parliamentary report.

EU citizens living in the UK would be stripped of their freedom of movement, housing and social security rights by Home Office legislation introduced to regulate immigration following Brexit, a parliamentary report has warned.

Despite repeated government reassurances that their privileges will be protected, a study by the joint committee on human rights (JCHR) concludes that more than 3 million Europeans living in Britain would be left in legal “limbo”.

The cross-party committee, whose members are drawn from the Commons and the Lords, argues that EU citizens’ rights should be protected by primary legislation rather than reliant on statutory instruments approved by ministers at a later date.

The JCHR also cautions that Irish nationals’ rights, guaranteed by separate common travel area agreements, would be “diminished”. Their ability to bring in a spouse from a non-EU state, for example, would be limited, the report says.

To prevent EU citizens being exposed to such uncertainty, the committee has drafted amendments to the bill – about to enter its report stage – to ensure rights are protected.

“Removing their rights without a legislative alternative in place raises significant human rights issues which the wide statutory instrument-making powers … do little to satisfy,” the report says. Without the necessary protections, the bill could leave individuals in a precarious situation over such issues as “housing, social security and property rights”.

The Labour MP Harriet Harman, who chairs the JCHR, said: “Human rights protections for EU citizens must not be stripped away after Brexit. EU citizens living in this country right now will be understandably anxious about their futures. We’re talking about the rights of people who have resided in the UK for years, decades even, paying into our social security system or even having been born in the UK and lived here their whole lives.

“When it comes to rights, promising that everything will be worked out in the future is not good enough, it must be a guarantee, which is why the committee have reinserted rights guarantees back into the wording of the bill.”

The report voices concerns that the government’s proposed EU citizen registration scheme post-Brexit does not provide physical proof of status. “Getting this right is extremely important considering the similarities of some of these concerns with problems that have arisen with the treatment of the Windrush generation,” the report says.

The JCHR fears that vulnerable people risk missing the registration deadline because of difficulties finding out about and accessing the EU settlement scheme. Their rights should not depend on registration within a specific time limit, the report says.

EU citizens have until 31 December 2020 to make an application under the scheme. In January, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, told the committee: “We have given unilateral assurances to EU nationals and their family members resident in the UK that they can stay if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

“Although future policy for social security coordination is yet to be decided, the government has been clear that EU citizens and their family members in the UK at the point of exit will continue to have broadly the same access to benefits and services as now.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government has already committed to protecting the rights of the millions of EU citizens living in the UK.

“We want them to stay and, whatever the outcome of the ongoing discussions about our exit from the EU, we will protect their rights and ensure they get the UK immigration status they need.

“The EU settlement scheme is designed to be as simple and straightforward as possible and during testing more than 200,000 people have applied. Today we launched a nationwide marketing campaign to encourage EU citizens to apply for the scheme, with other activity planned over the next two years to ensure people understand what they need to do.”

[D_1706]

Reminds me of the post 9/11 treatment of widows and orphans of British Ex-pats in New York

[Chris From The Gulag]

American woman with two disabled British children wrongly threatened with deportation from UK.

Exclusive : ​Home Office continues to hold woman on immigration bail despite court ruling that removing her from children would be breach of UK law.

An American woman with two disabled British children has been threatened with removal from the UK, in what lawyers and campaigners have described as “utterly reprehensible” conduct by the Home Office.

Lauren Cullen, 31, was returning from a holiday in the US last October when she was told by Border Force officials that she would be removed from the country, which would have meant her children – aged eight and nine and both of whom suffer from learning disabilities – would have to have been taken into care.

The removal directions were quashed days before she was due to be deported by a High Court judge, who accused the Home Office of failing to take into consideration the best interests of her young children in breach of UK law.

But despite this and although Ms Cullen had her UK status confirmed in January, the department is still holding her on immigration bail, meaning they have retained her passport and she is liable to be detained at any time.

It also means the 31-year-old is unable to travel to the US to see her sick mother, who was recently placed in a care home after having a stroke three months ago.

Lawyers and campaigners said it was “astonishing” that no attention had been paid to the best interests of Ms Cullen’s children and that the failure to return her passport highlighted “complete incompetence” in the Home Office.

Ms Cullen and her British husband moved to the UK from Ireland with their children in 2017 on a family permit which they were granted under EU law. She has since been caring full-time for her two children, one of whom has severe autism.

In October 2018, the US national travelled to America for two weeks due to the father being ill. On her return, she was told she had no right to enter, and days later she received a notice from the Home Office stating that there was a ticket booked for her removal the following Thursday morning.

Speaking to The Independent, Ms Cullen said: “I was just panicking because I couldn’t even contact a barrister over the weekend. My children would’ve gone into care because my husband was out of the country at the time. I was living like there was no tomorrow. It felt like everything was falling apart.

“They said that if I didn’t board the flight I’d be arrested where I lived and forcibly removed. We were making preparations with social services and school. My children would have been devastated. This is the life that they know.”

Ms Cullen’s barrister Morgan Read successfully sought an emergency injunction on the grounds that the department had failed to consider the welfare of her children in breach of UK law.

Despite this, and the fact that she was granted a British residence card in January, Ms Cullen is still on immigration bail, and the Home Office still has her passport.

“I felt like I was finally getting over it, that the judge said I could stay. It just doesn’t make sense. They’ve agreed that I do have the right to be here. It’s like I’m allowed to be here but not allowed to leave,“ said Ms Cullen. “It’s baffling really that they don’t seem to consider any human part of this. I feel like I’m just a number. They wanted to protect the border by tearing a mother from her children.

“My mother is starting to forget who I am because I’m not there. I just feel lost. This time is precious and they’re taking that from me.”

Ms Cullen’s solicitor Arta Heath, managing director of MyUKVisas, said the Home Office’s attempt to deport the mother-of-two was “absolutely outrageous”.

She said the passport issue was a symptom of both the hostile environment and “complete incompetence” in the department.

“This is a terrible situation. The Home Office said it knew she had British citizen children but that they could stay with their father, which is absolutely outrageous. They claimed that because had spent two weeks without their mum they could be without her forever,” said Ms Heath.

“But the issue now is the administrative process. There is no reason for them to hold onto her passport, but they haven’t sent it to her and the removal direction process is still continuing, meaning she can’t go see her mum.

“It shows how the inability of the Home Office to understand law and procedure, coupled with the hostile environment, is leading to shocking decisions being made.”

Responding to the case, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: “It seems the Home Office have ignored what is humane and sensible. Instead they have continued with the tick-box exercises, which have characterised this Tory government’s hostile environment.

“Until these dreadful policies end, families will live with the threat of being torn apart.”

[Chris From The Gulag]

Britons in Europe face citizens' rights lottery in event of no deal.

Requirements and costs of staying put abroad after Brexit vary across EU member states.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... eal-brexit

Tens of thousands of Britons seeking to secure residency rights in EU countries in the event of a no-deal Brexit face fees of up to €210 (£183), tight application deadlines and minimum salary thresholds, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

The challenges for British nationals will vary across the 27 EU member states if a withdrawal agreement is not ratified. The European commission has suggested member states should take a “generous” approach, but apart from Ireland none of the EU member states are said by citizens groups to be offering terms on a par with the approach taken by the British government.

In the event of a no-deal exit, the estimated 3.6 million EU citizens who reside in the UK would have until the end of 2020 to register for settled status through a free online application in which they need to prove only their identity and that they live in the UK, and declare any criminal convictions.

Despite the repeated calls by the European parliament for the UK to improve its offer, many of the estimated 1.2 million British nationals living in the other 27 EU member states would be in significantly worse situations.

The 8,500 British citizens living in Austria face paying €210 for a residence permit or €195 for each child up to the age of six. France would charge €119. Some member states, including Germany, are yet to decide on the size of the fee.

Retired or otherwise non-economically active people who have lived in France for less than five years would have to apply each year for a visitor card costing €269, leaving those who are new to the country with a potential cost of more than €1,000. Self-employed Britons would need to show they have sufficient resources for their family, with a couple with two children required to provide evidence of an income of around €1,175 a month.

Denmark is yet to make a permanent offer for those seeking to stay beyond a “temporary transitional period” up to the end of 2019.

Two thousand Britons living in Poland who apply for long-term residency permits would have to prove they have not spent more than 10 months outside Poland in the last five years.

Grace periods for late applications range from three months after Brexit day in Germany – although that initial proposal is set to be extended to nine months when finally legislated – to three years for those living in Hungary.

Jane Golding, the chair of the lobby group British in Europe, said her members were now pushing for an EU-wide solution to be ringfenced in the event of Britain’s membership of the bloc being extended beyond 31 October.

“If there had been a ringfenced solution, in a no-deal scenario you would have an EU-wide solution. But what we are facing now is 27 different solutions,” she said. “In effect it is a European postcode lottery, and rather than our EU rights being safeguarded at an EU level, our rights are being outsourced to the 27 countries.”

Kalba Meadows, a psychotherapist who lives and works in France, said the biggest problem facing Britons in her adopted country was its six-month grace period after Brexit day for fresh applications to be made.

She said: “It’s one of the shortest in the EU27, which is surprising when you take into account that France is the only EU27 state that doesn’t require registration of EU citizens, so it’s a case of starting from scratch, unlike, say, Germany or Spain where everyone should already be registered. It’s hard to see, frankly, how 150,000 to 200,000 people are going to be able to register within such a short timescale, even in a perfect world.”

Meadows added: “We know that there are thousands of British residents out there who haven’t yet been reached, either by us or by the embassy’s publicity campaigns, so there’s a huge amount of work to be done and it needs to be done fast. Then there’s the issue of those who are especially vulnerable – those who are ill, very elderly, live alone, have no internet or no transport, those in care homes, those under tutelle [power of attorney] and so on.”

Boris Johnson has said the UK will leave the EU on 31 October, “no ifs or buts”, and it looks increasingly unlikely that a deal will be secured with Brussels at a summit this Thursday.

A UK government spokesperson said: “The government has given an unequivocal guarantee to EU citizens living and working in the UK that they can have absolute certainty of the right to live and remain in the UK after Brexit. We continue to urge all member states to reciprocate fully for UK nationals the guarantee that we have made to EU citizens.”

[Chris From The Gulag]

Sick and disabled people deemed fit after being assessed by doctors who have never spoken to them.

Exclusive : Medical firm paid millions of pounds in public money by councils and the Home Office to carry out assessments on homeless individuals and asylum seekers, based solely on paper records.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/h ... 49011.html

Not dissimilar to some DLA / PIP assessments ?

[Chris From The Gulag]

How remiss of me ... I've fined meself 5 food bank vouchers ... okay , make it 10 ???

Featured earlier ... an article with a full house of concerns !

American grandmother and girl, 4, denied Universal Credit saved from life on the streets

Gwendolyn Banks can now remain in the Birmingham home she has lived in since the age of five

A four year old girl on the verge of being made homeless along with her grandmother has been given a last minute reprieve.

Gwendolyn Banks, who was born in America but moved to England aged five, got into rent arrears with the home she had lived at since the age of 21 because her benefits were suddenly stopped.

Ms Banks, from Aston, had her benefits stopped when she tried to apply for Universal Credit.

She was told she would not be entitled to support because she failed the Habitual Residency Test.

Ms Banks has since been battling to prove to the Home Office that she is entitled to live in the UK.

The 62-year-old, who is also the legal guardian to her four-year-old granddaughter Sienna, lost her appeal two weeks ago.



But in the eleventh hour and after being threatened with court action because of her rent arrears, Ms Banks has been told this week that she now qualifies for Universal Credit.

"When I lost my appeal, I just thought that was it," Ms Banks said.

"I thought I would be losing my home.

"My rent arrears reached a point where I was facing eviction because my benefits had completely stopped and I could not afford to pay the rent.

"Then I am told this week that I can now receive Universal Credit and an error had occurred in the application process.

"I was told to apply for Universal Credit in the first place and my benefits had never been an issue before.

"I am so relieved but this should never have happened in the first place.

"How many more people will this happen to?

"The process has been very confusing.

"My arrears are in control now and I am no longer facing eviction, which is a huge weight off my shoulders.

"My family and granddaughter need me here and this is where I belong."

A DWP spokesman said: “We always want to make sure that people can access the support they’re entitled to and we have been working closely with the Home Office to help resolve Mrs Banks’ case as a priority.

“We have now made the payments due to Mrs Banks for previous assessment periods and Jobcentre staff will continue to support her with her Universal Credit claim.”

Just got to admire that comment from the DWP ???

[Chris From The Gulag]

EU settlement scheme delays leave people " Unable to get jobs or housing. "

Lawyers say lack of knowledge among employers and landlords about EU settlement scheme is seeing people wrongly refused employment and turned away by landlords.

People are being illegally blocked from getting jobs and renting homes in the UK due to lengthy delays in the Home Office’s EU settlement scheme, according to lawyers.

Spouses of Europeans are waiting months for their applications for settled status after Brexit to be decided on, despite the government saying the process should take one to four days – often leaving them with no formal documentation to prove their status.

In one case, an Iranian woman married to a Swedish man said she had been driven to a state of permanent anxiety after being blocked from opening a bank account and was unable to get a job while she waited months for a response to her EU settlement application.

Experts said there was a lack of knowledge among employers and landlords about the fact that applicants retain their rights to live and work in Britain while their cases are pending, and warned that the issue was being compounded by delays in the scheme.

Somayeh Afkhami, 37, moved to the UK from Iran in September 2019 to join her Swedish husband Davood Ratsguo. She came on a spouse visa and applied for EU settlement in October. Three months later, her spouse visa has expired and she is still waiting for her application to be concluded by the Home Office.

Ms Afkhami worked prior to her visa expiring, but said she had since struggled to find a job and been unable to open a bank account, which, she claimed, was because employers and banks did not recognise her status.

“It’s causing a mental burden financially. I am having to put money I do have in my husband’s bank account and ask him whenever I need it. It’s frustrating. I worry that now everywhere I go I will face the same problem,” she said.

“I am constantly anxious. I check my EU settlement status online numerous times every day because I am so nervous and insecure from waiting.”

Christopher Desira, solicitor at the law firm Seraphus and at the European Commission Representation in the UK, said he had seen multiple cases of people being wrongly refused employment and turned away by landlords while they wait for a response on their settlement applications on the basis that they hadn’t yet got settled status.

He told of one case where the non-EU citizen married to an EU national got a job offer, but was told by the employer that he was not able to work until he was granted settled or pre-settled status. It took three months for his application to be concluded, during which he was unable to earn a living.

“People are facing financial issues because of this, and it is often the most disadvantaged people who don’t have the means to get a lawyer to know how to put pressure on the Home Office to work with them to speed up the application process. They are being left in a state of temporary limbo,” said Mr Desira.

“In an ideal world, the employer will understand that freedom of movement applies until the end of this year, but because of all the uncertainty and confusion around Brexit, that employer may not understand any of this. And they don’t want to take the risk, so they insist on asking to see pre-settled status or settled status when they should not do so. Those affected could take them to court, but this is a costly and long-winded process, so most choose to try to find another job.

“The Home Office are educating everyone, but whatever communication they’re doing for this now, it is not enough. We’ve seen multiple cases, and there will be more because we know there is underreporting on this.”

Luke Piper, legal adviser to the3million, which campaigns for the rights of EU citizens in Britain, said he had seen a number of people who had been refused promotions because of their pending applications, but added that while it was “arguably unlawful” for employers to do this, the issue was only likely to grow.

He pointed out that the “certificate of application” – which is issued to people once they have applied under the EU settlement scheme and is supposed to prove their right to live, work and study in the UK for six months – was not being recognised by employers.

“In the real world, do you think employers are going to employ someone who essentially has six months to remain in the UK with the potential for a grant of pre-settled status of settled status?” he said.

The comments came after the latest EU settlement scheme figures published by the Home Office showed that 525,200 applicants – more than one in five – were still waiting for an outcome, fuelling fears that a backlog is building up ahead of Brexit.

The Home Office said it typically takes five working days to process a completed application through the settlement scheme and thousands are handled every day.

A spokesperson added: “EU citizens are our friends, family and neighbours and we want them to stay, and so far more than 2.5 million people have been granted status through the EU settlement scheme. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens can continue to demonstrate their rights with a passport or ID card until 2021.

“Employers and landlords have a duty not to discriminate against people unlawfully.”