From 11 March 2024, following proposals announced in December 2023, Health and Care Worker visa holders are prohibited from bringing dependants with them to the UK. This decision has stirred controversy, shedding light on the government's long-standing policies, which are perceived as inadequate and prone to exploitation.
The Health and Care Visa is for healthcare professionals and workers from around the world to come to work in the UK health and social care sector. For applicants, the benefits of the Health and Care Worker visa include fast-tracked entry to the UK, together with reduced visa fees and exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge. It also includes the support of a dedicated UKVI application processing team.
But denying family rights to workers who come all the way to a new country, is a sensitive topic and has sparked major controversy in the UK. Under the garb of poor policies and the worry of straining an already reeling economy and health care system, human rights take a back seat. Living with one’s family is a fundamental right and Employment Rights Act 1996 allows a ‘reasonable amount of time’ to care for dependents.
According to Carehome UK, there are 16,700 care homes in the country. Most of these care homes are either privately owned by companies, local councils or charities. The ones that are privately owned are in large numbers run by Asian owners.
From NHS to care homes, corner shops to high streets, premium properties, businesses and entrepreneurs, ethnic minority workers who have their origin in South Asia and the Far East, have been instrumental in forming the framework of the country’s day-to-day functioning.
According to The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, migrants who moved to the UK recently (that is, fewer than 5 years ago) are much more likely to live in privately rented housing (74%) compared to the average among all foreign-born (37%) and UK-born and foreign-born residents have similar levels of participation in social housing. Not to forget that the strain on the NHS is because of a shortage of staff, and not because immigrants don’t pay their share of NHS surcharge when they come to the country. They also pay their rent and taxes.
Following the Covid crisis, which left one in ten care worker positions vacant, the UK welcomed thousands of workers. However, rampant abuse of the system, including allegations of modern slavery, prompted the government to enforce stricter immigration rules. This tightening follows the issuance of 106,000 care worker visas in 2023, revealing numerous unvetted companies granted licenses. Consequently, measures were introduced, prohibiting care workers from bringing dependents into the country.
The Homecare Association raised concerns with Care Minister Helen Whately, criticising the Home Office's approach. Reputable home care providers, like Grosvenor and 1st Homecare, reported difficulties delivering care visits due to visa-related obstacles. The stringent documentation demanded by the Home Office hinders efforts to address the national shortage of care workers. Concerns persist within the social care sector about reliance on international recruitment, with calls for better funding to attract more domestic workers.
Asian Voice sought perspectives from the community and received contrasting views. While an Asian care home owner told us that these visa schemes have been wrongly exploited by some care workers, another sympathised with the workers who he feels are wrongly penalised for making up for the shortage of care staff in the UK.
Major setback for Indians
Last year, 120,000 dependents accompanied 100,000 workers on the care visa route, prompting the need for this policy change.
The recent visa crackdown in the UK responds to the record-high immigration numbers reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) earlier this month. According to the data, net migration to the UK reached 672,000, highlighting a significant influx of individuals into the country.
Indian nationals featured prominently across various visa categories, emerging as a dominant force in skilled workers, medical professionals, and students. Notably, the Health and Care visa category witnessed a substantial 76% increase in Indian applicants, indicating a growing interest in healthcare opportunities in the UK. However, there was a slight decline of 11% in the Skilled Worker route, with visas dropping from 20,360 in the previous year to 18,107 in the current year.
India was among the top three non-EU nationalities for immigration in the year to June with 35,091 Indian health and care workers bringing 47,432 relatives during the period.
According to official figures, the most common non-UK nationality in the NHS is Indian, comprising 10.1% of full-time equivalent nurses and health visitors, and 8% of doctors.
Despite this decrease, Indian nationals continued to lead in the student visa category, constituting the largest group of students granted leave to remain under the post-study Graduate visa route. They accounted for 43% of all grants, reflecting robust academic ties between India and the UK.
Moreover, there was a notable rise in sponsored study visa grants to Indian nationals, with 133,237 visas issued in the year ending September 2023, marking a 5% increase from the previous year.
In terms of dependant visas, Indian nationals ranked second in the number of dependants, trailing behind Nigeria. The figures surged from 2,127 to 43,445 in the year ending September 2023, underscoring the familial connections and support networks established by Indian immigrants in the UK.
The move is likely to have a major impact on Indians, especially those from southern states like Kerala, which is home to a larger portion of the UK's overseas care workers population.
Cannot overlook abuse of the scheme
Sewa Singh Atkar, the owner of multiple care homes in the UK spoke extensively to Asian Voice about his views on the change of laws in the care worker visa scheme.
Atkar believes, “The only trouble in the last two years is that the government ignored how these skilled workers visas were given to people, such that it became a time the biggest scam that could have happened in two years.”
According to Atkar, approximately 130,000 care workers came and nearly 300,000 dependents came, affecting net migration. He said, “A lot of these care companies are companies who got sponsored, where a lot of company domiciliary care paid £25,000 and you could bring the whole family legally into the UK and avail all the benefits until 70 years of age and up. This happened to an extent that at some point, the system had to break. To make the case for only genuine workers who can who want to come to work, the care companies will pay the fair wage to employ the right people. The company must have a CQC registration or an Ofsted registration.”
He further explained that in his observation, some genuine companies are facing shortages of care staff, because the fees that are paid by Social Security are not enough to pay supermarket earners. People are working on more than one job besides being a care worker.
“But the abuse that has happened in the last two years particularly, resulted in a situation which has stopped dependents from coming from March 11.”
Sewa Singh believes the misuse of this visa scheme put strain on the NHS, housing as well as overall services that the country provides to its citizens, which is already not enough for the current residents.
In his recent hiring of workers from India and getting sponsorship licences, close to 50 percent of the candidates agreed to come to the UK without dependents. So, there are visibly potential candidates who are availing the visa despite this clause after all.
Don’t penalise people
According to another care home owner who did not want to be named, told Asian Voice, working in healthcare including the NHS and care homes owned by the council or privately or by a charity demands passion and commitment along with hard work around the clock. When separated from one's family, it's challenging to fully dedicate oneself to work whole-heartedly. And contrary to the popular narrative that immigrants are a burden on the country, allowing families to accompany immigrants in fact contributes to the socio-economic fabric of a country, as we have seen since the Ugandan expulsion. Britain has only benefitted from immigrants.
Immigration lawyer Shoaib M Khan told Asian Voice that 73,000 applicants were sponsored for skilled work visas in the health and care sector in the year 2022, the last period for which numbers are known.
This number rose further in 2023, with the publication of exact numbers still awaited. Khan told the newsweekly, “The changes brought in by the government are short-sighted, regressive and counterproductive. They hinder people who wish to come and care for vulnerable people in the UK, but they will also be harmful for Britain and British society. The care industry in the UK, including the NHS, is already suffering due to a lack of competent and qualified carers. These reforms will just make that worse and it will be elderly, vulnerable and sick people in the UK who will suffer as a result. It is also ungrateful towards the people who leave their homes to come and look after our sick and elderly people.
“What is needed is for us to welcome and thank such people rather than treating them as some unwelcome group who we are performing a great favour for by allowing into our country. These people already left their homes and lives in their own countries to come to look after our needy people. To now expect them to leave their own families, including their young children, behind is needlessly cruel and nasty. It will discourage some from even coming to the UK if they cannot bring their children and others who do come will be constantly distracted by the fact that they are away from their families. It is a cruel irony that we expect people to come and care for our vulnerable people but to leave behind their children and dependents to be cared for by others.
“This will certainly affect the workforce available to care homes and will lead to them having to spend even more time and resources on attracting and recruiting competent carers. Even if the government does wish to reduce net migration, it needs to focus on the right areas and not penalise people who are already serving this country, just because they are easy targets. Carers must be allowed to bring their families with them so they can lead happy, fulfilled lives while they are in the UK, and perform their jobs better as a result as well.”
One of the largest home care providers in the UK has revealed that it is compensating numerous migrant workers to stay at home without work due to the Home Office's failure to renew essential immigration permits. Darren Stapelberg, CEO of Grosvenor Healthcare, the third-largest domiciliary care provider in the UK, expressed concerns over the drastic shift in policy. He disclosed that his company is now paying reduced wages to 30 Zimbabwean workers and anticipates having to do the same for an additional 90 workers soon. Despite a significant shortage of care workers, exacerbated by the departure of eleven of his staff, Stapelberg lamented the loss of valuable contributors to society.
