Britain’s government has unveiled a raft of measures aimed at reducing “unprecedented” and “unsustainable” levels of legal migration to the United Kingdom (UK), including banning healthcare workers from bringing their families and dependants to the UK.
A statement issued by the Home Office on Monday said the new plan to slash migration levels and curb abuse of the immigration system would deliver the biggest-ever reduction in the country’s net migration.
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 families, dependants and we will require firms in England to be regulated by the Health Care Quality Commission 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 the 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 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 master 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.”
