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The UK will make it harder for employers to hire overseas staff by raising the pay threshold for skilled workers and axing cut-price salaries in shortage sectors, as it tries to cut net legal migration from an all-time high.
Under measures set out by home secretary James Cleverly on Monday, skilled workers will need to earn at least £38,700 in order to obtain a visa, up from £26,200 at present.
The government will also scrap the discount of 20 per cent of salary that is offered for overseas workers in sectors where staff are in short supply.
Cleverly’s announcement comes after weeks of mounting pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over both irregular and legal migration.
Last month, the Supreme Court blocked Sunak’s flagship policy of sending “small boat” migrants to Rwanda, while official data showed net legal migration hit a record high of 745,000 in 2022.
Cleverly told MPs that the government’s five-point plan, which will also bar care workers from bringing dependants from next April to prevent visa “abuse”, would “mean around 300,000 fewer people will come in future years”.
Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, which speaks for health organisations across England, said the measures were “deeply concerning” because it was “vital that overseas health and care staff continue to view the UK as a viable place to work and live”.
The crackdown on social care was criticised by Unison, the main union for workers in the sector. Christina McAnea, its general secretary, said the “cruel” plans would “spell total disaster” for health and social care as “migrants will now head to more welcoming countries, rather than be forced to live without their families”.
More than half of the immigrants entering the UK at present under the care worker route are dependants, many of them children.
Cleverly said health and social care workers would be exempt from increases in the salary threshold “so we can keep bringing them over” to fill chronic shortages.
But he added that only employers regulated by the Care Quality Commission would be able to sponsor care worker visas, in order to prevent fake or unscrupulous groups taking advantage of the system.
Cleverly also said he would end a scheme under which employers are able to offer 20 per cent salary discounts in some higher-paid occupations where the UK lacks homegrown skills.
The Migration Advisory Committee, which advises the government, called for the abolition of the shortage occupation list altogether in October, warning it could drive down wages and leave workers open to exploitation.
To qualify for a skilled worker visa, people must usually be hired on a salary of at least £26,200 at present, or in higher-paid occupations must be paid the “going rate” for the job as specified by the Home Office.
This threshold has not risen in line with inflation. It was set at £25,600 when the post-Brexit visa system was introduced in 2021 and would be above £30,000 today, had it kept pace with consumer prices.
The new threshold of £38,700 is roughly equivalent to the UK’s median wage and is unlikely to have a big impact on overseas hiring in sectors such as finance and consultancy that have traditionally most used the skilled worker visa route.
However, Jonathan Portes, professor at King’s College London, said it could “choke off” hiring of migrants to fill mid-skilled jobs, such as chefs, where employers struggling to replace EU workers after Brexit have made increasing use of the visa system in recent years.
Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, said the businesses most affected by the changes would be smaller, regional companies who were already struggling to afford visa fees or to compete with London wages.
“It sends a really bad signal around the world . . . it’s a very significant tightening,” Carberry added. “Once again . . . the interests of the economy have taken second place to the internal politics of the Conservative party.”
A lower salary threshold — of £20,480 or 80 per cent of the “going rate” for the job — has until now applied to skilled workers filling jobs on a Home Office list of “shortage occupations”.
Cleverly said he would also initiate a review of the list which would result in fewer occupations being included, while taking account of the higher salary threshold in the main skilled worker route.
He also said he had asked the MAC to review the graduate route, which allows students to remain in the UK for two years after graduation, or three years if they have completed a doctorate, “to reduce opportunities for abuse”.