Hike in visa fees to help pay for public sector salary rise set to hit overseas recruitment of social workers
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 14 August 2023
Local authorities employing social workers and social care workers from overseas are being warned to plan for rising visa charges, which look set to increase by 15 per cent.
Rishi Sunak announced in July that visa fees for overseas workers taking up jobs in the UK would increase “to help fund pay rises for public sector workers”.
The Skilled Worker Visa, which allows Home Office-approved UK employers to hire foreign workers will rise by 15 per cent from £625 to £718.15. Fees for other types of visas could rise by 20 per cent.
The Immigration Health Surcharge will also increase, from £624 to £1,035 - though health and social care workers are exempt.
Councils are increasingly looking abroad to plug high social work and social care vacancy rates. Regulator Social Work England received 1,684 applications from overseas social workers in 2021/22 – a 175 per cent increase on 2019/20.
More than half come from South Africa, India and Zimbabwe.
Latest government figures show one in five children and family social worker posts were vacant at 30 September last year, equivalent to 7,913 vacancies. The figure was a 17 per cent rise on the previous year and the highest under the current recording system.
The adult social worker vacancy rate in England was 9.4 per cent. Figures from Skills for Care show 165,000 vacancies across the whole adult social care sector in 2021/22 and between 10,000 and 15,000 people moved to the UK to take up care roles since the start of 2022.
Unions have spoken out against the rises.
Dave Callow, chair of the Social Workers Union, said the fee rise was "short-sighted".
He added: "It is, however, perhaps not surprising in a climate in which the government appears to pursue an ideological choice to target those coming to the UK. Once again, this is a divisive us and them approach.
"It also lacks sensitivity and understanding of the current high vacancy rate within social work - and the fact that we are a global profession."
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Workers who are on the Health and Social Care Visa (skilled worker) will not be affected by the rise in surcharge but the cost of this visa is also set to increase.
“And health and social care workers who are on other visas will have to pay the surcharge up front, and will be able to claim a refund on the costs.
“Migrant workers already experience high levels of costs when renewing visas. Unison has seen first-hand the impact this has had on members.
“We have heard distressing cases of members… going without food so they could feed their children after visa renewals left them with no money. Visa fees don’t just hit bank balances – it leaves families destitute.”
Some employers already foot the bill for visa charges. Local authorities could find themselves having to do likewise at significant extra cost on already hard-pressed budgets.
A government spokesperson said: “Visas was one area where we felt the right approach was to increase fees. Of course, that means those affected will pay higher fees, but we have tried to make sure the impact is mitigated.”
Stuart McWilliams, partner and head of immigration at law firm Morton Fraser, said: “Businesses and individuals need to take time to consider how to mitigate against the rising cost of visas, and there are steps that can be taken such as the timing of applications, getting it right first time and looking at clawback agreements to recover visa costs from workers who leave.”