Coventry Telegraph

Freddo 10p – for now

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TESCO has rolled back the price of Freddo chocolate bars to just 10p for one week in response to calls from the public.

The treat, which is made by Cadbury, will be reduced from 26p to 10p from today in Tesco stores.

It follows repeated requests from customers for the product to return to its former price, even after Cadbury reduced the cost from 30p to 25p last year. The deal is part of a range of price drops which the store has launched to mark its centenary. THE Home Office is being warned it risks creating a new “Windrush scandal” as the roll-out of its post-Brexit scheme to register an estimated 3.5 million EU citizens living in the UK begins.

EU nationals and their family members who wish to remain in the country beyond June 2021 must apply to the settlement scheme, which enters its first public testing phase today.

The website and app opens to EU nationals living in the UK with passports and their non-EU family members with biometric residence cards, ahead of a full launch by April.

Critics are warning that thousands could be left without legal status if applicatio­ns are not processed quickly and efficientl­y.

Jill Rutter, think tank British Future’s strategy director, said: “The Home Office must invest in getting the EU settlement scheme right from the start.

“Failure to do so could cause massive problems in years to come, on a far bigger scale than the Windrush scandal.”

Immigratio­n Minister Caroline Nokes said extensive testing “shows clearly that we are well on track to deliver a system that EU citizens outside Parliament

will make it easy and straightfo­rward for EU citizens to obtain status”.

But pressure group the3millio­n surveyed its EU members to find their biggest concern was losing their rights in the future, with founder Maike Bohn warning trust in ministers is low.

“The Windrush people trusted the Home Office and many of them got deported because they were citizens but couldn’t prove it,” she said.

Officials expect they can process about 6,000 applicatio­ns a day, with about 1,500 caseworker­s on the scheme and a further 400 in a resolution centre to deal with issues. A trial of nearly 30,000 applicants was restricted to people in specific profession­s, with only a small number of vulnerable people participat­ing.

More than two thirds were approved in three working days and 81% within a week.

While improvemen­ts to the process have been made, nearly a quarter of people told the Government they found it difficult during previous testing.

The price of applying for settled status is £65 for adults and £32.50 for children, although people already granted permanent residence face no extra charge.

Many will choose to use an app created by the Government but it can only be used on Android devices, which excludes iPhones and iPads, although there are other ways to apply.

British Future’s report, entitled “Getting it right from the start: securing the future of EU citizens in the UK”, has identified potential barriers.

It says people may not hear about the scheme, might not realise it applies to them, struggle to provide proof of residency or find the system hard to navigate.

There is also a possibilit­y the system will have technical difficulti­es matching names and official records, according to the report.

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