Brexit: Dutch woman forced to apply for settlement scheme despite living in UK since before it joined EU Former public servant Elly Wright relocated to England from the Netherlands in 1967 and still has to apply for settled status

A dutch national is one of the many EU citizens who will have to apply for settled status to stay in the UK post-Brexit – even though she moved to the UK before it joined the EU.

Elly Wright, a former public servant, moved to England from the Netherlands in 1967.

She said being asked to apply now for the Government’s post-Brexit settlement scheme felt like a “slap in the face” despite having paid tax in the UK for decades.

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Ms Wright told the Press Association: “I always felt like one of the Brits, I never felt different.

“I was fully integrated and I had done all my study here – it was such a slap in the face to realise that you were now ‘the other’.

“It seems a ridiculous situation if you are in the tax system and have paid tax for many years and you are a European citizen, you now have to ask to stay in your own home and pay for that privilege.”

It comes after Theresa May yesterday promised to scrap the £65 application fee for EU citizens seeking settled status after complaints from MPs.

‘We are all European in the end’

Because of Dutch law, the 77-year-old was unable to take British citizenship without giving up her Dutch passport.

Ms Wright’s late husband was British, while her son from a previous marriage similarly only has British citizenship.

She added: “I never applied for British citizenship because it just wasn’t necessary – we were all Europeans in the end.”

Ms Wright, who lives in Epsom, Surrey, spent years working for the NHS after starting out as a medical secretary.

She later moved into social housing as a welfare officer and went on to become an allocations officer with the Notting Hill Housing Trust. She is now a painter.

Ms Wright said many people in her situation were concerned about giving the Home Office permission to share their personal data with other agencies in the UK and abroad while they cannot access the data the Home Office holds on them.

Frustrating situation

She also voiced her frustration that the Home Office’s settlement scheme app does not work on iPhone and iPads – the devices she owns.

“You can ask someone to borrow their device but that alone is going to take more than half an hour,” Mrs Wright said.

From her involvement with groups set up to advise EU nationals living in the UK during the Brexit process, she has met many older people with limited computer skills who she said were very concerned about the application.

She said: “Some of them don’t even have a mobile phone and there are people who live in care homes, what are they supposed to do?”

She added: “The entire application process is in digital format and if successful, applicants are not given a printed card or letter confirming their settled status.

“The absence of written proof is another worrying aspect.”

i has contacted the Home Office for comment