What are the problems with the UK visa system for care work?

Dozens of foreign workers in social care in the UK say they have faced financial exploitation, paying thousands of pounds to secure full-time jobs and often finding little or no work available when they arrive.

Experts say the number of such cases has jumped in recent years after the government relaxed the visa system for care work in an attempt to solve chronic staff shortages. What is happening, and why?

Why are so many people arriving on care visas?

Care work has always been difficult to recruit workers into. Long hours, hard work and relatively low wages have meant the sector has always had higher vacancy and staff turnover rates than across the economy as a whole.

The combination of post-Brexit immigration controls and staff resignations during and after the Covid pandemic left things worse than ever. In 2022-23 there were 160,000 vacancies, according to the charity Skills for Care, which projects there will be another 480,000 jobs in the sector by 2035.

In response, the government added care work to the shortage occupation list, the official list of jobs deemed difficult to fill, making it easier for employers to bring in people from abroad.

The salary threshold is lower than for other visa routes into the UK, and a company can register with the Home Office before issuing sponsorship certificates to bring qualified health professionals into the country. To be eligible for a licence, a company must be regulated by the Care Quality Commission and cannot have had a licence revoked in the last 12 months.

Why is this system problematic?

Certificates of sponsorship are mainly used by companies in highly skilled sectors such as technology, banking and consultancy. They are easy to issue, and in sectors where workers are unlikely to face the risk of exploitative labour conditions the system largely works.

The care sector, however, is full of poorly paid workers who are vulnerable to exploitation, and so the ease of issuing certificates becomes a liability. Moreover, the Home Office appears to lack the resources to monitor employers properly. A recent report by David Neal, a former chief inspector of borders, found that the department had one compliance officer for every 1,600 employers licensed to sponsor migrant workers.

What have migrant workers said?

Almost all of the care workers the Guardian spoke to had the same story. They said they had paid thousands of pounds to immigration agents to secure a visa and work in the UK, only for the work listed on their sponsorship certificate never to materialise.

Workers said they paid agencies directly in advance of arrival. Some agencies were accused of using professional care workers as under-paid labourers doing jobs from cleaning to driving.

What can the workers do?

Care worker visas allow holders to work for an additional 20 hours a week for another employer, but this is supposed to top up their regular employment, not replace it.

Workers can leave their employer, but doing so can put their immigration status at risk. They are allowed 60 days after leaving a sponsor to find another, which experts say is not long enough for many people to find alternative work.