Number of foreign care worker visa applicants drops 25% in six months

Health and care visa applications covering 153,500 people were made from October 2023 to March 2024, comprising 40,800 main applicants and 112,700 dependants, provisional Home Office data shows.

This is down 25% from 205,800 people in the six months from April to September 2023, comprising 88,800 main applicants and 117,000 dependants, according to PA news agency analysis of the figures.

The data, published on Tuesday, also show the number of people per month included in health and care visa applications appears to have peaked in August 2023, at 41,600 (18,300 main applicants and 23,300 dependants).

Since then, the total has been on a broad downwards trend and has fallen every month in a row since November 2023.

The figures cover the period prior to a raft of restrictions being introduced by the Government in a bid to cut the number of people legally arriving in Britain.

More changes to immigration rules were gradually introduced from last month, with a ban on foreign care workers bringing their families with them to the UK, and a requirement for care providers to register with the Care Quality Commission if they are sponsoring migrants coming into force on March 11.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said the figures underline “why necessary action was taken to cut unsustainable numbers of care worker dependants”.

The figures show dependant applications on health and care visas continue to “significantly outnumber main applicants”, the Home Office said, arguing it demonstrates the need for reforms to the system, and the impact of the changes will be “fully shown in future statistics”.

“The Government has been consistently clear that dependant visa numbers have been both disproportionate and unsustainable, which is why decisive action was taken to restrict care workers from bringing dependants,” the department added.

Last year social care leaders told MPs they felt “blindsided” by the changes and had “grave concerns” they could drive people away from the sector.

Meanwhile Mr Cleverly declared the figures demonstrated a “significant fall in numbers” amid changes to student visa rules.

The number of dependants accompanying students to the UK has “drastically fallen” by 80%, the Home Office said in a press release.

Overseas students were banned from bringing their family with them to the UK in January.

According to the figures, there were 6,700 dependants linked to sponsored study visa applications in the first three months of this year, compared to 32,900 in January to March last year.

Mr Cleverly said: “This data shows a significant fall in numbers on the first of our measures to take effect.”

But Home Office notes accompanying the figures state: “It will be necessary to await the peak in student applications for the next academic year (which usually comes in August/September) before we can see the full effect of recent policy changes and any other impacts.”

The work “does not mark the end of the road in our plan to cut migration”, Mr Cleverly said, adding: “There is more still to come. Over the coming months, we will continue to show the pace of our progress as we deliver the control the public rightly expect.”