Mahmood Restores 5-Year UK Settlement Path for Care Workers After 15-Year Plan Backlash
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Nov 2
Mahmood Restores 5-Year UK Settlement Path for Care Workers After 15-Year Plan Backlash
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Nov 2
Summary
Care workers already in the UK who arrived before May 2025 and earn at least £25,000 will keep a five-year route to indefinite leave to remain, reversing Mahmood’s earlier proposal that could have stretched some waits to 15 years.
Labour MPs and ministers had attacked the retrospective change as moving the goalposts and risking deeper staff shortages in social care, prompting the Home Secretary to carve out the sector while insisting settlement should still be earned.
Most other migrants earning under £50,000 will move onto a 10-year path, while those on more than £50,000, along with doctors and teachers, can still qualify after five years; top-rate taxpayers on over £125,000 can apply after three.
The revision cuts the number of people whose permanent residency would be delayed to 517,000 from 799,000, even as the Home Office projects 1.3 million to 2.2 million people could settle between 2026 and 2030.
Conservatives called the change a costly U-turn, citing a £9.5 billion estimate for care workers and dependants settling by 2030, while the IPPR said skilled workers due to settle under current rules would make a net lifetime tax contribution of about £115 billion.