UK Government’s Changes To Skilled Worker Visa Salary Levels Set To Impact Care Sector
By Siobhan Owers and Ian Bell, Fragomen LLP (www.fragomen.com)
In a plan to slash migration, the Home Secretary James Cleverly, announced on 5 December 2023 that overseas health and care workers would no longer be allowed to bring dependants with them to the UK.
A Health and Care Worker visa is a category within the Skilled Worker route which allows medical professionals to come or stay in the UK to perform an eligible job with the NHS, an NHS supplier or within adult social care. Benefits of the Health and Care Worker visa include fast tracked entry to the UK, reduced visa fees and exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge.
The UK immigration system admitted an unprecedented number of overseas health and care workers in the year ending September 2023; almost 101,000 Health and Care Worker visas issued to senior care and care workers, with an estimated 120,000 visas granted to associated dependants.
Further announcements delivered by James Cleverly that will also impact workers in the Health and Social Care Sectors:
• Care providers in England will only be able to sponsor workers where their activities are regulated by the Care Quality Commission.
• The discount available on the ‘going rate’ for occupations listed on the Shortage Occupation List will be abolished and the Shortage Occupation List will be revised in line with new salary thresholds and replaced with an Immigration Salary List.
• Increased minimum income requirement for family applications, rising from £18,600 to £38,700.
An increase to the minimum salary threshold for the overseas workers by 47.7%, from its current position of £26,200 to £38,700 was also proposed, but Health and Care Worker visas are exempt from this increase; however, it is not yet known whether the current threshold will remain in place.
Impact
Whilst these proposals may contribute to the UK government’s aim to reduce net migration, it will likely deter care workers with families from moving to the UK, leading to further staff shortages in an already fragile sector.
In addition, longer term, sponsored care workers who have settled in the UK or acquired British citizenship may now struggle to bring across foreign national family members due to the increase in the financial threshold under the family route.
Continue overseas recruitment
Despite the changes announced, the government believes there will still be high demand from overseas workers for care roles in the UK, despite not being able to bring family members with them.
To qualify for a Health and Care Worker visa an applicant must meet the following requirements:
• Sponsorship: The individual must have an employer sponsor who holds a Skilled Worker sponsor licence.
• Role: The job must be a qualified doctor, nurse, health professional or adult social care professional and be working within an eligible health or social care role.
• English Language: The individual must demonstrate an ability to speak English.
• Minimum salary requirement: The minimum salary requirement for a Health and Care Worker visa or the going rate for the job type (if that is higher).
Consideration could also be given to other non-work sponsored visa routes which do allow for work in the health and social sector. These include but are not limited to:
• Youth Mobility Scheme: persons aged between 18 to 30 (or 18-35) from participating countries
• British National (Overseas): British National (Overseas) status holders and their family members
• UK Ancestry: commonwealth citizens who have a grandparent born in the UK or Islands
• Graduate: post study visa, although this route is being looked at as part of the announcements to ‘prevent abuse’
• Partner of a Settled Person/British citizen
• Family member of an EEA national with status under the EU Settlement Scheme
• Dependant family members of work sponsored visa holders
As the new provisions will not come into force until spring, businesses may wish to review their headcount and workforce planning to consider whether any proposed moves could be brought forward, paying particular attention to salary levels. Businesses could also consider whether training programmes to fill vacancies with settled or British workers are a viable alternative to sponsorship.
