UK Care Workers Keep 5-Year Settlement Path
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood scraps plans to extend permanent settlement wait times for migrant care workers to 15 years.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has dropped plans to extend the indefinite leave to remain (ILR) wait for migrant care workers from 5 to 15 years.
- Care workers earning at least £25,000 annually and arriving before May 2025 will maintain their 5-year pathway to settlement.
- The policy reversal followed intense backlash from Labour MPs and criticism over changing rules for existing migrants.
- The Home Office maintains the broader reforms will still reduce state welfare bills by billions of pounds.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has abandoned controversial proposals that would have forced foreign care workers already living in the UK to wait up to 15 years to qualify for permanent settlement, rolling back a timeline that was originally extended from the standard five years.
Mahmood had previously proposed doubling the wait for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) to 10 years for most migrants, with some facing a 15-year delay, as part of efforts to curb record post-Brexit net migration figures often dubbed the "Boriswave" under the previous Conservative administration. The Home Office had earlier projected that existing rules would incur a lifetime cost of £4.2bn for 117,000 foreign care workers expected to settle between 2026 and 2030, rising to £9.5bn including adult dependents.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
However, following substantial pushback from several Labour MPs and criticism from Housing Secretary Angela Rayner—who previously argued the changes would "change the goalposts" for those already in the country—Mahmood revised the policy. Care workers earning a minimum of £25,000 a year who arrived in the UK prior to May 2025 will now continue to qualify for settlement within five years.
ILR grants individuals the legal right to live, work, and study in the UK indefinitely, access eligible public benefits, and eventually apply for British citizenship. Addressing the House of Commons, Mahmood stated that settlement "should not be automatic, it should be earned," confirming that higher earners making over £50,000 and critical healthcare and education staff like doctors and teachers will retain a five-year pathway.
Taxpayers earning over £125,000 will be eligible to apply after three years, whereas refugees arriving via small boats or other irregular routes will face waits of 20 years if employed or studying, and 30 years otherwise. Meanwhile, groups such as Hong Kong British nationals overseas, armed forces personnel, and individuals on legacy pathways like the Windrush scheme remain unaffected.
This policy adjustment highlights the delicate political balancing act facing the current administration as it attempts to lower overall net migration figures without destabilizing critical sectors like social care that heavily rely on overseas personnel. While opposition Conservatives criticized the reversal as a costly U-turn, the government insists that maintaining stricter timelines for other migrant sectors will still yield billions in public savings.
While Mahmood declined to disclose the exact financial cost of scrapping the care worker settlement extension, she asserted that the updated reforms would still save "billions" largely because workers in other industries will still face extended waits. The original iteration announced last year would have delayed permanent residency for 799,000 individuals, a figure that drops to 517,000 under the newly revised framework.
Source: BBC Politics
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