A British man settled in Italy who has a rare cancer has been unable to receive the free healthcare he is entitled to because local officials do not understand the Brexit withdrawal agreement, he has said. Graham Beresford, 61, has spoken out days before the foreign secretary, David Cameron, who triggered the Brexit referendum, has his first major meeting with the European commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic in Brussels about post-Brexit relations.
Under the withdrawal agreement, Beresford should be entitled to the same access to healthcare as a permanent resident.
But he has repeatedly, and erroneously, been told that he is only entitled to the permanent residency document if he had been in the country for five years before Brexit and is now facing demands of Euro 2,000 (£1,700) for an Italian health card.
Campaigners say Beresford is one of hundreds of Britons in this situation.
“Brexit is the cause of this. Brexit is an absolute disaster, an act of self-harm of the worst kind for absolutely nothing. I don’t know why anyone voted for it,” said Beresford, who cannot, despite trying for years, persuade the local authorities he is entitled to healthcare under the Brexit deal.
Beresford managed energy for the local council in Glasgow, but took early retirement and moved to Italy in January 2019 to realise his retirement dream before the Brexit drawbridge in January 2021 which put a stop to free movement.
Initially he relied on savings, but when he reached 60 he was able to access his pension of about Euro10,000 (£8,600) a year.
Local authorities have told him that the withdrawal agreement gives health rights only to British nationals who were in the country for a full five years before the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.
Attempts to convince authorities that they are making an error have been futile.
Cameron’s meetings with Sefcovic on Thursday – as part of the EU-UK joint committee and the EU-UK Partnership Council – are his first official stocktake of Brexit, and come eight years after he resigned over the referendum result.
One will focus on the trade and co-operation agreement, where energy co-operation, the fisheries deal and post-pandemic health security will be discussed, and the other on the withdrawal agreement in which citizens’ rights and an update on the Northern Ireland Windsor framework are on the agenda.
In February, the Italian health ministry circulated a two-page letter to local authorities confirming that Britons who were in Italy before Brexit were entitled to register for free with the Sistema Sanitorio Nazionale, the Italian version of the NHS.
This is also referenced on the UK government’s Living in Italy page.
When Beresford took a copy of the minister’s letter to the local authority, he was still met with resistance. “She told me ‘we need f...