The British government has introduced a comprehensive set of measures with the goal of mitigating the “unprecedented” and “unsustainable” levels of legal migration to the United Kingdom (UK). This includes a prohibition on healthcare workers bringing their families and dependents to the UK.
In a statement released by the Home Office on Monday, it outlined the new plan, emphasizing its objective to significantly decrease migration levels and address the abuse of the immigration system. The government anticipates that this plan will result in the most substantial reduction in the country’s net migration to date.
According to the Home Office, the revision will encourage “businesses to look to British talent first and invest in their workforce”, helping UK to deter employers from over-relying on migration, whilst bringing salaries in line with the average full-time salary for these types of jobs.
Interior Secretary, James Cleverly, said his plan would result in 300,000 fewer people coming to the UK in the coming years.
Under plans set out by Cleverly, workers would need to earn at least £38,700 to obtain a visa, up from £26,200, while care workers would be barred from bringing in dependants from next April.
He said, “The first of our five points will be to end the abuse of the care visa. We will stop overseas care workers from bringing family, dependants and we will require firms in England to be regulated by the Health Care Quality Commission in order for them to sponsor visas.
“Approximately, £120,000 dependants accompanied £100,000 care workers in the year ending September 2023, but only 25% of the dependants are estimated to be in work, meaning that a significant number are joining public services rather than helping to grow the economy.
“We recognize that healthcare workers do great work in our NHIS and health sector, but it’s also important that immigrants make a big enough financial contribution. Therefore, it will increase annual immigration healthcare charge by 66% from £624 to £1035 to raise, on average, £1.3 billion for the health services of the country every year.
“Second, we will stop immigration undercutting the salary of British workers. We will increase skilled workers’ earning threshold by a third to £38,000 from the next spring in line with the medium, full-term wage for those kinds of jobs.
“Those coming on social and health visas will be exempt, so we will continue to bring healthcare workers.
“Finally, having already banned overseas masters students’ from bringing family members to the UK, I have asked the Immigration Advisory Committee to revise the graduates’ rate to prevent abuse, to protect the integrity and quality of the UK’s outstanding higher education sector. It needs to work in the best interest of the UK, supporting the pathway into high quality jobs in the global talent pool and reducing opportunities for abuse.”
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