Care Workers Get Five-Year Settlement Route in Mahmood Retreat
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has backed away from making care workers wait 15 years to settle in the UK. Most of the strict rules she drew up last year still go ahead, and some will apply to people who are already here.
A carve-out for care work
Care workers on salaries above £25,000 can now apply for indefinite leave after five years. That is a third of the time announced last year. An estimated 280,000 care workers and their dependants are covered.
The change came under pressure from a cabinet backlash and from health unions. Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh repeatedly declined to say she backed a longer qualifying period.
The Unison general secretary, Andrea Egan, welcomed the decision not to go ahead with the first plans. She said the conditions care workers must meet for the five-year path are still onerous and that employers must not be able to threaten workers with deportation.
Rules that remain
Mahmood told MPs that settlement "must be earned". Anyone earning under £50,000 will now wait 10 years, double what they expected. Refugees face a 10-year wait, with an extra 10 years for those who did not enter legally. People who arrived by irregular means, such as small boats, could wait up to 30 years. The same ceiling applies to refugees who do not find work.
At the top of the scale, those earning more than £125,000 can settle within three years. People earning more than £50,271 can settle after five, as can some public service workers such as doctors, nurses and teachers. Refugees who arrive through designated safe and legal routes are the exception.
By Home Office calculations, about 500,000 migrants will be waiting longer than today's five years. Critics of the softening note that 1.4 million of the 1.9 million migrants who came during the so-called "Boriswave" will still qualify after five years.
Reaction from politicians, unions and business
Nigel Farage called the change "the beginning of the capitulation". The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, said that exempting care workers who came on the visa before May 2025 would cost up to £10bn. Mahmood has cited the same figure in support of her original plans. She says the longer wait for more than half a million people will cut the projected benefits bill.
Some Labour MPs object to the retrospective element. Abtisam Mohamed said she will press for people already in the country to be protected. Diane Abbott warned of another potential Windrush scandal. The Law Society said the rules undermine the legal certainty that individuals, families and employers rely on.
Business groups are also unhappy. The CBI warned of higher costs for the relatively small number of firms using skilled worker visas. Make UK said it will be far harder to retain skilled workers.
Andy Burnham endorsed the plans. In the Makerfield byelection he had pledged to voters to back Mahmood's migration agenda.
Our view
The care worker exemption shows that cabinet and union pressure can change this policy. The retrospective rules are harder to move, because Mahmood has defended them to MPs. The new policies do not need a parliamentary vote, so MPs have limited means to block them. Whether the Home Office protects people already in the country is Mahmood's call.
Source: the Guardian