The UK has announced a hike in the NHS immigration surcharge to £624 per year for an adult from its existing £400. It must be noted that the surcharge had already doubled fro £200 to £400 last January 2019. And now it has further increased by £264. Additionally as part of the new budget announced, Tier 4 visa students and Tier 5 Youth Mobility visa holders will pay £470 a year instead of the current £300 a year.
Now, some charitites including the Migrant Voice UK argue that this increase in the immigration health surcharge will make it even more unaffordable for migrants. This will be even more challenging for oversees students who already pay twice the education fees to the UK universities as compared to the local UK students.
“It is a considerable increase considering the fees only just doubled last year. Whilst we understand the pressures on the NHS from an Indian student’s perspective this is a significant increase in costs. Having said that we don’t think it has impacted student’s decision making to any significant degree as there is a lot of joy and positivity with the return of the post study work visa in its new form as the Graduate Route.
“We hope any further increases are now frozen for some years,” said Sanam Arora of National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK.
The immigration surcharge is on top of regular tax and national insurance that all workers pay. The levy is added on to visa applications as an annual fee and must be paid up front before permission is granted to work. A single person will face a £624 annual fee from October while a child will pay £470. The latest rules indicate that an individual adult will have to pay £3,120 over five years. Meanwhile, the fee for a child will be £470, tripling since the UK Immigration health surcharge was introduced back in 2015. For a family of four, the cost for using the NHS will be £2,200 per year.
According to the UK Treasury, the increased immigration health surcharge will generate £1.5 billion by 2025. However, Liberal Democrat MP, Layla Moran, tweeted,
“Tories are increasing the immigration health surcharge. So migrant workers who we desperately need to staff vital services pay more even though they contribute on average more to the economy. Shameful. #HostileEnvironment.”
After the end of the Brexit transitional period from next year newly arriving EU and EEA migrants will also have to come under the UK visa system, and so will presumably have to pay high visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge. This means that most migrants and in future newly arriving EU migrants will have to pay a £624 annual fee to use the NHS. The fee was buried among details of extra funding for the NHS, outlined in the recent UK Budget announced by new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak.
These visa fees are likely to hit the NHS Staff as well despite the government’s introduction of the NHS visa. According to data held by the Office for National Statistics, nearly a quarter of staff working across UK hospitals, were born overseas and the latest hike is likely to hamper the mid-wives, nurses among other doctors.
