UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has scrapped plans to make foreign care workers already in the country wait 15 years for permanent settlement. She set out the revised rules in the House of Commons on Monday. The BBC reported that the change followed a backlash from several Labour MPs. The Guardian said cabinet ministers and health unions had also pushed back.
Under the new rules, migrants earning less than £50,000 a year move to a 10-year path to indefinite leave to remain (ILR), unless they are exempt. That is double the current five years. Care workers who arrived before May 2025 and earn at least £25,000, the condition of their visa, keep the five-year path. According to The Guardian, an estimated 280,000 care workers and their dependants will benefit. Care workers who did not meet their visa conditions can apply for another five-year visa and seek settlement after that.
The original plan would have delayed 799,000 people from gaining permanent residency, the BBC reported. Under the revised plan, that number drops to 517,000. Some groups keep their current route. They include Hong Kong British nationals overseas, armed forces members and people on legacy routes such as the Windrush scheme. ILR gives a person the right to live, work and study in the UK indefinitely. It also opens the way to British citizenship.
Mahmood told MPs that settlement "should not be automatic, it should be earned". Asked by the BBC whether she had made a U-turn, she said: "I don't accept that." She said about 500,000 people would no longer settle at five years. She refused to give the cost of the change but said the reforms would still save billions. An impact assessment will follow in a future announcement.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said opposition from fellow ministers and the "Labour open borders left" had forced the changes. The Conservatives said the U-turn would cost taxpayers billions. In March, Home Office figures put the lifetime cost of 117,000 foreign care workers settling in 2026-2030 at £4.2 billion. With adult dependants, the estimate rose to £9.5 billion. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said the reforms were "unravelling".
The Refugee Council's Imran Hussain criticised a proposed 30-year wait for people who arrived illegally or by small boat and do not work or study. He called it "unfair and unworkable". Before the announcement, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner had said applying the changes to people already in the UK would "change the goalposts". Several Labour MPs called the approach "un-British". They warned it could worsen skills shortages, particularly in the care sector.
Mahmood first announced the plans last November. She cited concern over the number of people nearing eligibility after record post-Brexit net migration. The Home Office says net migration added 2.6 million people to the UK population between 2021 and 2024.