CALLS for “flawed” Universal Credit tests to be scrapped are growing after EU citizens who have lived in the borough for years were denied benefits or faced long delays as they scrambled to prove their right to be in the UK.

Under the current Universal Credit rules, EU citizens and UK citizens returning from living abroad have to pass a Habitual Residence Test (HRT) before they can claim benefits.

But after a number of people living in the borough started experiencing difficulties with the process the council commissioned the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) to look into the issue.

The think tank interviewed claimants in Islington, and their research found around 45,000 Universal Credit claims were rejected nationwide in the last year due to the test.

One French national, who asked not to be named, has lived in Islington for more than 10 years and worked in the creative industries. She applied for Universal Credit after the lockdown wiped out her income.

In her interview, she was asked to provide proof of regular income dating back to 2009, and was told her earnings may be “too low to be considered genuine”.

“I was not even aware that it was called the habitual residence test, until I received the outcome and I was told that I failed it,” she said.

“I had no idea what was going on and it wasn’t clear what they were looking for.”

“When I explained to the woman at the jobcentre why my income was low, and I explained to her the process of having new clients and everything, she understood, but then she said to me, ‘because you’re an EU national you need to prove that you were in genuine employment’. But what does it mean? I mean, I was working.

“It just felt like in normal times it would have been very difficult, but considering the context of the coronavirus outbreak I could not even imagine that they would make this kind of decision without any real reason.”

The IPPR’s report, published yesterday, (Thursday) found the HRT had “considerable flaws”, and “imposed unnecessary hardship on claimants”.

It also highlighted poor communication of decisions.

The report’s introduction added: “There is a strong case for suspending the HRT in light of the mass redundancies and severe economic hardship resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.”

Islington’s finance chief Councillor Satnam Gill said: “This research has proved our worse suspicions about the unfairness of the HRT.

“It is a tragedy that around 45,000 people across the country have gone through this nightmare. From our cases in Islington, we know the human cost of each person who falls foul of this flawed test.

“We are really concerned that the government has refused to answer questions to better understand the situation.

“We urge them to act on the report’s findings now, suspend the test and spare the suffering of more families.”

The Habitual Residence Test broadly requires claimants to prove that they have a settled home in the United Kingdom and that they have a “right to reside” to gain access to benefits.

Those facing issues passing the test included EU migrants who have been in the UK for years and who are self-employed and those on zero-hours contracts, who often struggle to meet the requirements due to officials not considering their work to be “genuine and effective”.