‘My daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia aged 11 – and the NHS tried to charge us £17k for her treatment'
A Latvian mother who was sent a £17,000 bill for her daughter's NHS cancer treatment is taking legal action against the government.
The mother, listed as M in the legal challenge, said the bill 'was overwhelming and came completely out of the blue' and is taking legal action to argue that European nationals who apply late for settled status should be able to maintain their right to free healthcare in the UK.
She and her daughter now have settled status in the UK under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) and despite seeing some of the fees waived after challenging it with their NHS trust, are still facing costs of around £2,000.
The mother came to the UK in 2014 and was joined by her young daughter in 2017. She successfully applied for status under EUSS in 2019 and then made an in-time application for her daughter, which was rejected in December 2021.
At the time of her daughter's rejection, the mother had been locked out of her email account and therefore didn't realise the application had been refused. This only became apparent in early 2023 and she then made a second application, which was granted in June 2023.
During that period her daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia in February 2021, and underwent treatment at the North West Anglia NHS Trust. The now 15-year-old daughter went into remission in July 2023, but nearly a year later, in May 2024, the family were sent an unexpected bill for £16,635.81.
The charge was for the treatment received between the deadline to appeal her daughter's initial residency refusal, and the date the mother reapplied.
Due to delays in updating the new digital status system for EU citizens, the daughter did not appear to have a refused application when she went to the NHS for treatment.
During this period, when the system hadn't updated, some 141,000 settlement applications were refused.
The mother explained her shock on finding out that her daughter wasn't entitled to healthcare, saying: 'Finding out about this debt has been very stressful for my daughter. She thinks it is her fault. She knows I cannot afford to repay this amount of money.
'I tried to ensure that my daughter had applied on time and did not realise she did not have status under the EUSS. She now has settled status because the Home Office allowed me to make a late application for her.
'It does not seem fair that the NHS trust is not taking into account these circumstances and is now asking me to pay for so much of her treatment.
'Realising that other families might be in the same position made me determined to take legal action, so that they don't have to go through this stress and suffering.'
Niamh Grahame, lawyer at the Public Law Project, explained their claim, saying: 'People who make a successful late application to the EUSS are still charged for their treatment before the date on which they make the late application.
'We are arguing that this policy breaches the Withdrawal Agreement and unfairly treats people differently for making a late application where the government has accepted that they had a reasonable excuse for doing so.
'The intention behind the Withdrawal Agreement was that the rights of EU nationals and their family members who moved to the UK before Brexit should be continuously protected. If you meet the criteria for a successful application, it should not matter when you apply.'
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