More than a quarter of care workers who came to the UK to stem a staffing crisis in the sector were hired by employers who lost their licence to sponsor visas, the government said on Wednesday.
More than 39,000 workers had been affected by measures to crack down on abuse of the visa route it opened in early 2022, according to the Home Office, allowing care providers to hire overseas recruits into low-paid entry level roles for the first time.
A surge in visas granted to care workers and their family members was a big factor driving a post-pandemic surge in immigration to the UK, which peaked at more than 900,000 in the year to June 2023.
About 150,000 care workers came to the UK between the opening of the visa route and late 2023, when the previous Conservative government tightened the rules and officials began scrutinising applications more closely.
But many of those arriving found they were underpaid, mistreated or not given as much work as they had been offered, in a sector where low pay and poor practice have long been widespread.
“The care route in 2023 was pretty much the wild west — it is clear that exploitative practices were widespread,” said Madeleine Sumption, director of Oxford university’s Migration Observatory think-tank. “What remains to be seen is whether the situation is better controlled now,” she added.
The Home Office said the government had revoked more than 470 licences to sponsor visas in the care sector between July 2022 and December 2024, in a clampdown on abuse of the visa route and worker exploitation.
Of the 39,000 workers affected, about 10,000 had already left their posts when their employer lost the licence, or had since found alternative work in the sector, the Home Office said.
But many thousands were left without an income and are unaccounted for. Sumption said workers had often struggled to find a new job even while employers continued to recruit thousands of staff from overseas.
Under changes to the immigration rules, published on Wednesday, employers will be required to show they have tried to recruit from this pool of international workers already in England before hiring from overseas.
“As we crack down on shameful rogue operators . . . we must do all we can to get the victims back into rewarding careers in adult social care,” said Stephen Kinnock, minister of state for care.
However, care sector representatives worry that the new requirements will worsen problems rooted in the underfunding of their sector, and in local government commissioning practices that drive down standards.
Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, a sectoral body, said the rule change by Labour was “politically expedient” but did not address a “broken commissioning system that makes stable employment impossible”.
Many of the workers who had lost sponsorship because of the Home Office clampdown had “suffered trauma because of exploitation, job loss, or homelessness” and some needed “significant support and reassurance before they can return to work”, she said.
Additional reporting by Amy Borrett
