Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed that qualifying care workers will avoid a 15-year settlement wait and instead apply after five years. To become eligible, carers must earn at least £25,000 annually and have switched to or entered the care visa route prior to a 2025 white paper. Those who fail these requirements must secure a second five-year visa before seeking settlement, raising warnings from campaigners about potential workplace exploitation. The decision arrives alongside conflicting fiscal assessments, with disputed government figures estimating a £10 billion cost, while independent research projects a £115 billion net tax contribution from settling skilled migrants.
Key points
Carers who miss the salary or entry criteria must obtain a second five-year visa, which c…: Carers who miss the salary or entry criteria must obtain a second five-year visa, which campaigners warn invites exploitation.
Health unions and Labour cabinet ministers successfully pressured the Home Office to amen…: Health unions and Labour cabinet ministers successfully pressured the Home Office to amend low-paid worker settlement proposals.
Official claims that granting settlement costs £10 billion contrast sharply with think-ta…: Official claims that granting settlement costs £10 billion contrast sharply with think-tank estimates projecting significant positive tax contributions.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
If you want to see the senselessness of Britain’s immigration debate play out in real time, look no further than the crackdown on care workers’ visas that came to a head this week.
As part of its plans to force low-paid migrant workers to wait 15 years before settlement in the UK, the Home Office has been in a battle behind the scenes for the past six months to controversially include care workers in the policy. This is despite the social care system already facing critical staff shortages and the number of British citizens and immigrants taking the jobs dwindling.
After a fierce backlash from health unions and Labour cabinet members, this week the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced a partial U-turn: an estimated 280,000 care workers and their dependents will be exempt and allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) after five years.
It’s a welcome reprieve from a policy that should never have been on the table. But check the fine print and this “watering down” will not protect every care worker. Only carers who earn…
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