Changes to immigration rules: protection of care workers and salary adjustments
The recent Statement of Changes to UK Immigration Rules introduces critical updates, including protections for care workers and changes to the methods for calculating salary thresholds.
Statement of Changes overview
On 9 March 2025, the UK Government announced a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, which introduced key revisions aimed at better protecting the care sector and those relying on Skilled Worker visas to fill staffing gaps.
Protection of care workers: creation of a 'pool' of skilled workers
The Statement of Changes introduces a significant change to the way in which care providers are expected to recruit care workers. A 'pool' has been created consisting of Skilled Worker visa holders who were recruited to work as care workers but find themselves in situations where their sponsors have lost their licence or failed to provide sufficient work. From 9 April 2025, care providers in England will be required to recruit from this pool before sponsoring new care workers from other immigration routes or overseas.
This change addresses concerns about the stability and security of care workers in a sector that has faced ongoing challenges with sponsorship and compliance issues. Care workers in the pool will not be left in limbo if their sponsor is unable to fulfil their obligations. The pool aims to provide a safeguard, ensuring continuity of employment for these workers while helping employers address staffing shortages in a more suitable way.
For care providers, this means they must carefully assess their existing workforce and explore recruitment options within this pool before considering sponsorship of new workers.
Salary changes: new thresholds and adjustments to salary calculations
The Statement of Changes also introduces changes to the Skilled Worker salary rules.
The first change is to increase the minimum salary threshold required to sponsor Skilled Workers to reflect the latest salary data and pay scales. Currently, the minimum salary required by workers being sponsored to fill certain healthcare and education sector roles is subject to a minimum threshold of £23,200, unless a higher 'going rate' applies for the role in question. That minimum threshold is being increased to £25,000, and at the same time the going rates for most healthcare and education sector roles are being increased in line with the relevant national pay-scales or other earnings data.
In addition to the increase in the salary threshold, there will now be additional rules on how salary calculations should be handled.
The key change here is that salary calculations will no longer be able to include any deductions made from the worker’s salary, including repayments of loans . Any deductions or loan amounts must be averaged over the duration of the sponsorship period. However, deductions will not be made where the payment does not relate to business costs, immigration costs, or investments. For example, if an employee chooses to take up a benefit, such as an optional company scheme, that cost will not be deducted from the salary calculation.
Given the high level of immigration fees which need to be paid to secure Skilled Worker visas, many employers enter into arrangements with their sponsored workers to either loan them the application fees, or pay them on their behalf but make them subject to clawback agreements requiring repayment of some or all of those fees if the worker leaves their employment early. The new rules on deductions from salaries appear to preclude such arrangements in situations where the amount to be repaid or clawed back would reduce the salary paid to the worker below the relevant salary threshold that needed to be satisfied when the worker was initially sponsored. Clarification is being sought from UKVI as to whether that is the intention behind these new rules, which appear to contradict recent updates to the Sponsor Guidance which prohibit the passing on of some fees associated with sponsorship, but not the visa application fee or Immigration Health Surcharge.
Learning points for employers
The recent Statement of Changes to Immigration Rules introduces important updates that employers must consider to remain compliant.
Employers should:
- Ensure compliance with the new care worker pool: Care providers in England must attempt to recruit from the pool of displaced Skilled Workers and obtain proof that they have done this before attempting to sponsor new care workers.
- Review salary thresholds and calculations: Consider whether any workers due to be sponsored after 9 April who will either be loaned application fees or subject to a Clawback Agreement for repayment of those fees are in danger of their salaries falling below the relevant thresholds if those amounts are deducted from their salaries.
- Watch out for further updates and clarification: We are concerned that the new rules on deductions from salaries will have unintended consequences and will be keeping an eye out for further clarification on how these new rules will be interpreted. We will provide further updates when we have them.
By taking proactive steps to prepare for these changes, employers can avoid potential compliance issues and ensure a smoother process for managing sponsored workers.