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Problems maintaining digital status

This report to the Independent Monitoring Authority focuses on the challenges of maintaining a digital status, whether by the status holder when initiating changes to identity document or contact details, or by the Home Office when handling multiple applications by one citizen.

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We consider the trends, analyse their implications and set out recommendations for the UK Government. We hope that this will assist the IMA in its own inquiries into View and Prove, and its consideration of recommendations when working with the UK Government.

The diversity and severity of problems identified demand that key questions be answered:

  • Is the online View and Prove portal a digital document within the meaning of the Withdrawal Agreement?
  • Is the online View and Prove portal a reasonable, proportionate, and effective means for people to prove their rights for their lifetime?
  • Is the online View and Prove portal inclusive and accessible to everyone?

Our analysis raises the following key findings:

  1. To maintain access to their status users must maintain multiple elements of their View and Prove account. Each point of maintenance can result in delays and errors. We have accounts of errors and delays at each point of maintenance with severe impacts ranging from loss of employment opportunities through restrictions on travel to a complete inability to view or prove status.
  2. A heavy reliance on the EUSS Resolution Centre. Problems with the View and Prove portal result in contacts with the Home Office’s helplines. The apparent under-resourcing of the helplines creates a serious barrier to resolving problems, with reports of staff unable to help or give progress updates, and many reports of people unable to get connected to a staff member at all.
  3. View and Prove does not give access to a personal profile but only to the status record resulting from a single Home Office application via an identity document. The implications of this mean that a person can be disconnected from their status if they lose access to their identity document, have multiple Home Office applications connected to that identity document, or when the update of their status with new identity documents is delayed or fails.

Our recommendations to address some of these findings can be summarised as follows:

  1. Review the design of EUSS View & Prove;
  2. Address technical errors in the View & Prove and update system;
  3. Improve and make changes to various process associated with EUSS View & Prove; and
  4. Improve resourcing of the EUSS and UKVI Resolution Centres.

Even with these recommendations implemented, we do not believe that View and Prove in isolation is a viable means for people to prove their status.

Alternatives need to be explored to ensure that people can have personal access to, and ownership of, proof of their right to live in the UK, rather than having to repeatedly obtain permission from the Home Office acting as a gatekeeper to their status.

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