Almost 15,000 Sheffield people applied to stay in the UK post-Brexit, figures show

The EU Settlement Scheme allows resident EU and Swiss citizens, plus those from the European Economic Area countries, to apply to continue living and working in the UK following the UK’s departure from the European Union.

Official figures show 14,450 applications were made in Sheffield up to the end of last year, of which 12,260 were finalised.

Of those, 7,110 applicants were granted settled status, meaning they have a permanent right to remain in the UK.

A further 5,070 were handed pre-settled status, which gives them permission to keep living in the country and the chance to reapply once they have done so for five years.

The rest of the applications had other outcomes, such as being refused, withdrawn or void, or invalid.

The Government has hailed the process as a success and said it has received more than three million applications in total across the UK so far, with 2.7m of those people been granted permission to remain.

Home Secretary Priti Patel described the programme as the ‘biggest of its kind in British history’, which would mean ‘EU citizens can evidence their rights for decades to come’, saying: “It's now time for EU countries to adopt a similar scheme.”

However, The EU citizens’ rights campaign group ‘the3million’ disagrees. It said even a small percentage of individuals missing out means misery for thousands.

Maike Bohn, co-founder of ‘the3million’, said the figures, which were taken at the end of January as Britain left the EU, do not represent those who do not apply, are refused unlawfully or discouraged from applying.

She said: “Just a small percentage of individuals falling through the cracks means misery for tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people. Those people will face the full force of the hostile environment and the Government have so far avoided to say how it will handle those cases.”

In Sheffield, Slovakian nationals made the most applications up to the end of December, with a total of 3,190, followed by Poland at 1,960 and Romania at 1,580.