Thinking more about the EU settlement scheme, whereby EU citizens have to register after Brexit, I find it hard to understand why the UK Government didn't just pick up the tab for the whole thing. There are 2.25 million EU nationals working in the UK, so if we assume 1.5 children
each (many EU nationals will be married to each other so double-counted, some won't have children etc.) that would mean 2.25 million adults and 3.38 million children. At £65/adult and £32.50/child that's a total of £256.1 million in registration costs. A lot, for sure, but not
prohibitively impossible given that it eliminates the out-and-out PR disaster of a totally unnecessary financial burden (especially since public sector bodies such as the NHS are picking up the costs anyway, so a lot is already coming from the public purse via other routes).
And when we consider how vital EU staff are to so many of our industries and sectors, that sort of "friendly" gesture would be a first step along the road to repairing relations fractured by the Government's harsh language and behaviour.
It would also provide an easy mechanism for the Home Office to control applicant numbers. Their beta test only coped with just over 1,000 applications in two weeks, a pace that would see the entire registration process take over 130 years. But if the UK Government were footing
the bill, they could easily divide the 3-year registration span into shorter time periods, stating that people with a surname that began "A-D" (for example) would have to register between X and Y dates for the registration to be free/reimbursed.
(NOTE: I may well have overestimated the number of children, since many with one British parent and born in the UK will be British or dual citizens, but the broad principle remains.)
Another consideration: 132,000 more EU staff left the UK than arrived last year, with shortages widening in the health sector, hospitality etc. If this grand gesture by the UK Government helped stem the departures, that would have a material benefit on our economy and community.
