A SPANISH student who has lived in Scotland for nearly 21 years claims she has been barred from 78 jobs since September because the UK Government has refused to give EU nationals physical proof of their settled status.

Ana Garcia (whose name we have changed to protect her identity) was also unable to rent a flat when she moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow to take up her course and had to rely on friends until her college stepped in to provide accommodation.

She is just one of the millions of EU nationals in the UK who are being denied access to health and social services and are having difficulty opening bank accounts, finding jobs and accommodation because of the lack of physical proof of their settled status, it has been claimed.

“Everybody is now asking for physical proof and people don’t seem to know the difference between settled status and pre-settled status, so everyone is being treated at the moment like they just arrived,” said Garcia.

“People from outside the EU have physical proof so now we are only the only foreign group without a physical card. We are being treated like second class citizens. It’s a mess.”

Despite protests and a petition signed by nearly 15,000 people asking for physical proof for those with settled status, the Home Office has agreed merely to issue a digital code that is supposed to be entered into the Home Office database.

However to get the code, EU nationals need not only their passport but the ability to access the same email address or mobile number their status was linked to originally – even though this could have been set up by another person years ago.

Even those able to access the code claim they have experienced problems, with the system crashing when they have been trying to show it to potential employers and landlords. Others say employers, landlords and officials are still insisting on physical proof.

Campaign groups are also reporting increasing examples of how the lack of physical proof is failing people, with many EU nationals worried they will be denied entry to the UK if they leave for a holiday or to visit relatives abroad.

The Work Rights Centre said it had taken on more caseworkers after a “significant spike” in the number of EU citizens already employed in the UK asked to provide physical proof of their settled status or risk being sacked. The organisation said even the NHS had been advertising job vacancies in which they asked applicants to provide physical proof of settled status, adding that it was “by no means” the only employer in the UK discriminating against EU nationals.

The charity Settled has also reported a “dramatic” increase in the number of EU citizens asking for legal advice.

Campaign group the3million, meanwhile, has now launched a fundraiser so it can raise a claim for a judicial review of the UK’s refusal to provide physical proof. A minimum of £10,000 has to be raised before a claim can be made this month.

A spokesperson said: “EU citizens will therefore be increasingly vulnerable to a hostile environment in which they are wholly at the mercy of computer systems being available and up and running.

“Furthermore, the Home Office will be able to build up a complete digital trail about citizens who need digital status.

“British citizens are not subject to such intrusive scrutiny of their lives – and it is utterly unacceptable that EU citizens who have made their home here should be.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson added: “We have long feared that EU citizens would have problems proving their status, and Scottish ministers have written to UK ministers asking them to give successful applicants to the scheme the option of physical status.

“This would be in addition to, not instead of, a digital status. Physical proof will also assist the most vulnerable in society, including people with disabilities and mental incapacities and those that are in abusive relationships. We will be writing to the NHS and Cosla to explain that the UK Government is not currently issuing physical proof.”

UK Minister for Future Borders and Immigration, Kevin Foster, said: “We’ve been clear eligibility checks for EEA citizens will not change until after 30 June, 2021, and right to rent checks do not operate in Scotland.

“Prior to then, employers and landlords must not discriminate against EEA citizens who do not yet have status under the EU Settlement Scheme or who choose to use their passport or national identity card to prove their right to work or rent – we provide a telephone helpline if employers and landlords need any guidance on this.

“Unlike a physical document, a secure digital status cannot be lost, stolen, damaged or tampered with, and we’re developing an extensive package of communications to ensure everyone is fully aware of the move to digital, with more than 160,000 uses of our view and prove service so far.”