UK bans migrant health workers from bringing dependants

The United Kingdom has banned migrant health workers and caregivers from bringing their dependants to the country.

The UK government announced this in a post on its X handle on Monday, March 11. 2024.

The UK Home Office said the development is part of plans to cut migration.

The tweet reads, “From today, care workers entering the UK on Health and Care Worker visas can no longer bring dependants.

“This is part of our plan to deliver the biggest ever cut in migration.”

This move according to James Cleverly, the country's Interior Secretary, would result in 300,000 fewer people coming to the UK in the coming years.

He said, “The first of our five points will be to end the abuse of the care visa. We will stop overseas care workers from bringing family, dependants and we will require firms in England to be regulated by the Health Care Quality Commission in order for them to sponsor visas.

“Approximately, £120,000 dependants accompanied £100,000 care workers in the year ending September 2023, but only 25% of the dependants are estimated to be in work, meaning that a significant number are joining public services rather than helping to grow the economy.

“We recognise that healthcare workers do great work in our NHIS and health sector, but it’s also important that immigrants make a big enough financial contribution. Therefore, it will increase the annual immigration healthcare charge by 66% from £624 to £1035 to raise, on average, £1.3 billion for the health services of the country every year.

“Second, we will stop immigration undercutting the salary of British workers. We will increase skilled workers’ earning threshold by a third to £38,000 from next spring in line with the medium, full-term wage for those kinds of jobs.

He, however, explained that the move does not affect those coming to the country on social and health visas as the UK plans to keep bringing healthcare workers.