A 101-year-old Italian man who has lived in London since 1966 was asked by the Home Office to have his parents to confirm his identity after he applied to stay in the country post-Brexit
In what appears to be a computer glitch, Giovanni Palmiero was told that he needed the consent of his mother and father when he made his application under the EU settlement scheme at an advice centre in Islington, north London when the Home Office’s computer mistook him for a one-year-old child having misinterpreted his birth year as 2019 instead of 1919.
It took several telephone calls before the Home Office understood it was a software error and not that of the applicant. Once they accepted the mistake Palmiero’s problems did not end there. After being advised that he could resume his application as a 101-year-old, Palmiero was asked to provide five years proof of residence in the country despite the fact that he has been resident in the UK for 54 years and the Home Office should have access a person’s national insurance and tax records to corroborate five years of continuous tax residency.
Palmiero arrived in the UK in 1966 and worked first at a restaurant in London’s Piccadilly district and then up until the age of 94 in a fish and chip shop. He has been married to his 92-year-old wife, Lucia, for 75 years. Together they have raised four children, have eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
The Home Office said it had been in touch with the centenarian and his application was being processed.
