Overview
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a concession that allows foreign‑national care workers who meet visa rules and earn at least £25,000 to qualify for indefinite leave to remain after five years, with dependants included.
- The decision, announced on Monday, reverses earlier plans to lengthen qualifying periods and follows large internal party opposition to tighter settlement rules.
- Home Office estimates put the lifetime cost to taxpayers at roughly £9.5 billion under earlier assumptions and at about £14.5 billion using revised consultation arrival figures of 146,000 care workers and 136,000 dependants.
- Critics point to unresolved problems in the care‑worker route, including past Home Office findings of forged documents, weak English skills and weak sponsor oversight, and warn the change may entrench reliance on migrant labour instead of boosting pay and training for domestic staff.
- The government’s consultation returned 204,667 responses with a large share from current visa holders, a fact that has fuelled debate over the neutrality of the evidence used to shape the policy and the next steps on rules and transition arrangements.