Yes, wasn’t aimed at you or any other covid casualties. Nor do I wish any malice to elderly people who are managing on their diminishing pensions, and have been living here for years. What annoys me intensely is people who are here working - either remotely and not declaring themselves, in an ex-pat bubble often for cash, or other under the table approaches - who could well afford to contribute but don’t, drive uninsured cars and generally take the P***.
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Proof of income really isn’t required for the EU Settled Status scheme. Providing a National Insurance number plus passport was all that colleagues had to do & they got their confirmed status automatically & instantly (one of my colleagues told me he did it during a quiet time while on a night shift & was astonished to get the confirmation at 03:00). As proof of residence something as simple as a mobile phone bill is all that is necessary.
OK I agree that it wasn’t exactly income that the government were after (as you rightly say) - BUT they did require proof of residency and they did use HMRC records in the automated process - just because your friend did not have to manually provide the documents himself did not mean they were not required. In fact if the tax record was incomplete he would have had to provide the missing documents and some people have had difficulty, of been given pre-settled rather than settled status because of this.
In fact each and every month of residence had to be evidenced (though only up to the minimums needed if you have been in UK residence for longer).
It’s set out here
Not a doomsayer, I think they absolutely should be slung out, not the same thing at all.
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Income really isn’t considered in applications for the EU Settled Status scheme. The National Insurance record is a very simple way of the government confirming your length of residence & it’s only indirectly related to income & sometimes isn’t related at all. You can pay NI because you work (it’s really a form of income tax) or because you voluntarily pay it because you are credited eg while unemployed or because of caring responsibilities.
If you haven’t worked or paid tax or had NI credits then there is other evidence that you can provide eg utility bills like a mobile phone bill.
Unfortunately it looks like you won’t be getting your way as there is an amnesty.
Honestly, I thought I could be pedantic 
- yes, I said that looking at tax records was about residency, not income per-se - can we shift the focus a little here?
The residency proof required is quite exacting, much more than the French are requiring. For *each* *month* of the necessary period you have to provide documentary proof of residency, yes 90% will be automatic but even if they get it 99% right that is 37,000 individuals caught up trying to prove to an unsympathetic government that they have the right to stay in the UK.
The concern is the number of people who might not even realise they need to apply - those with poor English, those who arrived as children and think of themselves as British, those with low incomes and limited access to the Internet.
As the article that I linked says there is the potential for another Windrush here - and that is before we even consider the subtle discrimination that the decision to make the status “digital only” might bring.
It doesn’t mean to say that after a CdS is issued the tax office will not query where the returns are for all the years that some folks will claim they were resident in France. Like Vero, I hope that those who deliberately have set out to evade are investigated and are asked to make good on their tax responsibilities.
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Yes, I agree Peter, if people are living here they should be doing it properly with tax returns (even if they are minimal like in our case where we lived 3 years on our savings - our choice for me to have maternity leave and dh to work on the house and gites, an dhten worked the last 2 years). I don’t understand how these days you can even get away with ‘not being in the system’. 20 odd years ago we spent a year or 2 doing so as we were very young, hadn’t planned to stay, asked nothing of the government (never got sick!!) while doing our first house up. As soon as boy 1 came along we changed our outlook and got all sorted in the system.
I had an ‘honest’ conversation with a holiday home client at the beginning of the week who despite being a UK tax resident is applying for a CdS along with his wife, I’m guessing many Brits will try and do the same to avoid restricted visits from January.
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Applying how…as in they are planning to become resident at the 11th hour, or just hoping that the french tax authorities won’t notice that they have maison secondaire property taxes, and don’t file income taxes? 
Hope they at least pay the taxe de séjour and CFE!
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Probably the ones who voted for Brexit too… ! 
Nobody applying for the EU Settled Status scheme has to demonstrate any income at all. Income is not one of the criteria. Income is not tested. It’s residence that is the only criteria.The fallback position for those who apply for Settled status but cannot provide evidence of 5 years residence is Pre-settled status. This is like missing out on a 10 year CdS & being given a 5 year CdS instead. The difference is that unlike the French scheme where newer arrivals have to provide evidence of income etc that EU citizens in the UK don’t & won’t. Provided they register then they will have their residence status regularised & in due course when they have evidence of 5 years residence can apply for Settled status. A reliance on benefits is no bar to Settled status & there are many programmes in place to address the issue of homeless EU citizens resident in the UK.
Give it a rest Nigel - I agreed with you on that 3 posts ago. 
In fact I never actually said income was a criteria - I just misquoted you slightly, though I agree it looked, superficially, as though I meant income was checked.
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I think this is a very simplistic view to think this is some sort of amnesty to draw a line under whatever under the radar activities an individual might have been involved in.
Most certainly the rules will have to be obeyed going forward and the individual is now traceable and accountable.
Perhaps when the dust settles an individual’s circumstances will be revisited by the Impot to ask “so how did you manage to live here for X years, please show us the paperwork”
Just saying!
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Whoops, missed reading a few posts, it seems others think the same 
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Although a lot has been pretty obvious to the powers that be up until now and no-one has taken action, so I have less confidence than you.
As far as I know the U K in its wisdom never set down any criteria for EU citizens who wished to settle in the UK so they can hardly start imposing condtions in retrospect. Most other countries did set conditions.
Maybe if the UK had, we would not have brexit.
It did which is why I banged on about it so much 