Keir Starmer Proposes Changes to UK Immigration Rules

Keir Starmer has announced significant proposed changes to the UK immigration rules in a recently published white paper.

Keir Starmer’s Government has published a white paper containing significant proposed changes to UK immigration rules, which they say will reduce net migration. This has happened in the wake of the UK’s Reform Party enjoying increasing support from the public and appears to mark a stark departure from Keir Starmer’s previous record relating to supporting the rights of migrants.

The proposed changes include, but are not limited to:

• A 32% increase in the Immigration Skills Charge that employers pay when sponsoring a worker.
• Closure of the care worker route to overseas applicants.
• Increasing the residency requirement for most migrants to qualify for settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain) from five years to ten years.
• Introducing an English language requirement for some dependants.
• Increasing the English language level required for settlement.

The Immigration Skills Charge is paid by employers when assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship to a worker so that the worker can apply for a Skilled Worker Visa. This is supposed to encourage employer’s to train resident workers instead of recruiting from overseas. Employers are unlikely to spend the money required to sponsor someone if they do not particularly require that person, and so for most employers this simply amounts to an additional tax.

The care worker sector currently has a reported shortfall of around 130,000 workers. Changes were made to this visa category last year to prevent care workers bringing their family members with them. Those working in the care industry do not generally enjoy high salaries and their partner would usually work so that the family income was sufficient to survive. As a consequence of this change there has been a reduction in applications of around 82%. Representatives of this industry sector have expressed significant concerns.

The proposed change to the English language requirement is to increase the requirement where it is currently B1 to B2. This is not particularly significant.

The requirement for a worker to have a degree harks back to prior work visa rules and for most skilled workers it will be irrelevant as they will have degrees, but it could impact on certain occupations that are most certainly skilled but do not require a University education.

The change to the residency requirement to qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain from five years to ten years is rumoured to also apply to those who are already in the UK and who came to the UK with the promise of settlement within five years. Many who are in low-paid (which does not always mean low-skilled) jobs will remain stuck in those jobs for ten years before they can obtain ILR and have the freedom to work for a different employer. It would be surprising if this proposal was applied to those already in the UK and it would likely be met with significant resistance.

A sponsored worker currently pays £1,035 per year for the Immigration Health Surcharge, in addition to their tax and National Insurance contributions. Most will obtain a three-year visa and extend for a similar period, with the visa application fee currently being £885. Over ten years the sponsored worker might pay £13,890 to reach the required ten-year period of residency, assuming they do not lose their job during this time. This also assumes that they do not need to use a priority service due to travel requirements, which would add between £500 and £1,000 per application, with four applications being required to reach ten years.

If that worker has a partner and child then the total cost to their family over this period would be £25,190, again without using any priority visa processing services.

In addition, a ‘large’ employer will pay £1,000 per year for the Immigration Skills Charge (£364 per year for a ‘small’ employer), so a further £10,000 over this residency period, to be increased by 32% under these proposals, along with £525 each time they assign a CoS to a sponsored worker. The total cost under the proposed changes is therefore in the region of £40,490 to get a sponsored worker and their small family to the point where they can qualify for ILR.

The Government had said that they anticipate the proposed changes reducing immigration by at least 50,000. The migrants they will prevent from coming to the UK might be the ones that we actually need and the anticipated reduction might appear to be a drop in the ocean.

Stopping boat crossings and deporting those without the right to live in the UK might result in a far greater reduction in migrant numbers.

A letter was recently received instructing a sponsored worker that they now have sixty days in which to leave the UK as their sponsorship had ceased, giving them the right to remain in the UK for sixty days from the date of the letter. This had been reported to the Home Office one year prior to the letter being received and the applicant’s sixty-day period should have started from when employment ceased. In this case the worker had left the UK immediately upon employment ceasing. Taking one year to get around to sending a letter asking someone to leave the UK does not seem like the actions of a Government that is serious about removing those who do not have the right to live in the UK.