Our Impact 

Ms. E, approached us and presented the following background information:

 

Ms. E is a Zimbabwean national and was employed by a British family as a Domestic Worker in her country.

 

The British family decided to move to the United Kingdom and Ms. E entered the UK with the family as a domestic worker on limited leave obtained by her employer. The family, promised to pay for her work

and renew her leave to remain in the UK. The family kept Ms E’s passport and other documents, and she

believed that her leave was extended.

 

Ms. E came to realise that the motive of the family was to keep her as a worker without paying wages and her leave to remain was also not extended.

 

With the help of a church friend, she managed to escape from the house and claimed asylum in the UK in 2002 and her claim was refused.

 

She, then made a fresh claim, which was also refused and was directed by the Home Office to report at a reporting centre monthly. Ms E did not have the right to recourse to public funds nor the right to take up employment. She faced absolute poverty.

 

Fortunately, a fellow Church going family took compassion of her situation and provided accommodation and food. She was still in relative poverty and reliant on others for her subsistence.

 

When Ms. E approached us for help, she had no legal status to remain in this country, no right to take up employment, no right to access mainstream services and in relative poverty solely dependent on others for her existence.

 

How the Centre of social inclusion assisted her and resolved her issues

 

The fundamental need to lead a free and independent life is financial resources. Income generation can generally be achieved through employment, enterprise or by accessing public funds.

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For Ms. E being an immigrant without legal status, the only pathway to achieve these life opportunities is by acquiring right of abode in this country. As the British family who brought her into this country, held her passport and Immigration papers, she did not have any documents to hand.

 

We gathered some information and documents from Ms. E’s Church. For other relevant information and documents, we made a ‘subject access’ request to the Home Office for personal information about Ms. E, that is held on the Home Office’s immigration records.

 

Having obtained the records, to submit a Leave to Remain application, Mrs. E did not have a penny to pay for the application processing fee or the Immigration Health Surcharge fee for each year of leave.

 

We therefore made a fee waiver application that was successful. We then made a further leave to remain application under family and private life route and Ms. E was granted Further Leave to remain in the UK for 2.5 years, but on the condition of no recourse to public funds.

 

Long years of uncertainty and often stressful life had its adverse impact on Ms. E’s life and her health.

Also, the family who supported her thus far, asked her to leave as the host household had grown and was overcrowded. She now faced risk of homelessness, unemployment and absolute poverty.  We therefore applied to the Home Office to lift the No Recourse to Public Funds condition and the restriction was lifted.

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As she became entitled to access mainstream services, we assisted her to apply for Universal Credit which she has since received. We also assisted her in her application for social housing through her local council and.

 

Ms. E has now been been placed in accommodation by the Council, preventing her from homelessness and absolute poverty.

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