Success! Court finds EU citizens with pre-settled status are eligible for housing assistance
We are delighted to update you on two major successes achieved in court. These two wins for EU citizens and family members bring us a step closer to our aim: for everyone with status under the EU Settlement Scheme to have access to welfare and equal treatment, being treated no differently from British citizens.
Thank you to those of you who have already donated to our crowdfunder! You’ve helped us to intervene in these important cases. We desperately need more help. We want the law to be changed so that everyone with pre-settled status automatically has these equal treatment rights, and no longer has to go to court to try to access welfare and homelessness assistance.
As you’ll see below, one County Court judge agreed with our position, the other didn’t.
This shows how important it is for us to intervene in as many of these cases currently before the courts as possible, especially if they ultimately go to the Court of Appeal. We can’t do this without more funding. If you can make a small donation, or help share our crowdfunder, you will help our fight for justice.
Hynek v Islington
Our intervention in Hynek v Islington has helped in getting a positive result for Mr Hynek in his case against Islington Council.
The judge has ruled that people with pre-settled status within the personal scope of the Withdrawal Agreement are entitled to equal treatment rights under it. This means that Mr Hynek is eligible for the homelessness assistance that he applied for in 2023. The full judgment can be found here.
Mr Hynek, a Slovakian citizen, was granted pre-settled status in 2019. He was working as a software engineer until May 2020, and then struggled to find another job during the Covid pandemic. In 2021 he applied for homelessness assistance, as he found himself between sofa surfing and having to sleep outside at times. He was refused because Islington Council said he did not pass the ‘right to reside test’, and that his pre-settled status alone was not enough for him to be eligible for homelessness assistance.
The judge however has agreed with our fundamental argument that people who get pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme are conferred with rights under the Withdrawal Agreement if they are within its personal scope.
The UK chose to implement a Withdrawal Agreement scheme that compels people to make an application for status, and the logical consequence of that is that they then acquire all the rights under the Withdrawal Agreement.
The judge also agreed with us that pre-settled status holders enjoy the rights and protections set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, including, importantly, equal treatment rights. This means being able to apply for homelessness assistance on the same basis as a British citizen, without the extra hurdle of a complex additional ‘right to reside’ test. We believe the same interpretation should now apply for welfare benefits, including Universal Credit and housing benefit.
This County Court judgment is not binding, however, and this is why we will continue to make interventions on this very important legal point until the legal position is confirmed.
C v Oldham
C, a family member of an EU citizen, has also won her case in another County Court, with the court finding her eligible for housing assistance.
Our intervention was useful to the judge in this case too, who agreed with our argument that the rights of family members who were dependants of EU citizens before the end of the transition period continue after they are no longer dependent on their EU sponsor.
The full judgment can be found here. The crucial value of our intervention is recognised by the judge where he states:
“The final issue [that of the effect of Article 17(2)], which is of some real importance, arose late. It was first raised by T3M the day before the hearing through the provision of a short note.”
Given this point, the judge in this case did not need to consider our broader argument that everyone with pre-settled status has equal treatment rights. However, he did offer his view and disagreed with our argument but, just as with the judge's views in the Islington case, his comments are not binding on other judges. This is why we continue to make interventions on these very important legal points.
The judge accepted our submission about Article 17(2) which was enough to ensure her entitlement to housing assistance.
In both of these appeals, the judges also importantly found that J and C, as pre-settled status holders, were entitled to rely on important rights set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and that the local authorities were under an obligation to consider their Charter rights. It had been established in AT v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2023] EWCA Civ 1307 that DWP had to consider these obligations when assessing applications for Universal Credit, and the judges agreed that this duty also applied in the context of applications for homelessness assistance.
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Together we will build our intervention fighting fund, to put this strategic litigation on a sustainable footing, and ensure that our dedicated legal teams can be paid.
