‘This will be disastrous’: Independent readers fear social care collapse after visa ban

Yvette Cooper’s announcement of sweeping new restrictions on overseas care worker visas has sparked fierce backlash, with many readers warning the move risks pushing the UK’s fragile care system to the brink of collapse.

Under the changes, care homes will no longer be allowed to recruit staff from abroad, a sector that has long relied on foreign workers to plug chronic staff shortages.

Applications for the health and care worker visa have already plunged by 70 per cent in a year, from 129,000 to just 26,000, while more than 100,000 vacancies remain across England’s care sector.

The home secretary defended the crackdown as necessary to reduce net migration to “significantly” below half a million, arguing that high levels of overseas recruitment had distorted both the economy and the immigration system without addressing deep-rooted problems in social care.

But charities such as Age UK warned that foreign workers have been “keeping many services afloat” and that care home closures could pile further strain on NHS hospitals already stretched to breaking point.

Independent readers are divided. Some say the UK must continue attracting overseas carers to meet urgent needs, while others call for better pay and training to encourage British workers into the sector.

Here’s what you had to say:

Punishing workers while ignoring non-workers?

There are indeed people who are entering the country illegally who have no intention of working or integrating with British society. So the Labour government’s solution is to directly target the people who come to this country to work and contribute? Am I missing something?

It’s like when they put mandatory “don’t steal DVDs” videos on DVDs you just purchased with your own money in HMV.

W0ngC0ugh

Home care will be hit hard too

Again, care homes. How this will affect home care is ignored. The company that our county council uses, almost exclusively, sources its staff from Africa. It is owned and run by Ghanaians, I believe. This is going to be disastrous for the care sector. But what do politicians care about the most vulnerable in society anyway?

Drone1970

This is political suicide

Labour are now officially over. This is a disaster of a policy and a disgrace. Everything that is wrong with politics in a nutshell – party first, country last.

This will set the NHS back decades. I did like Starmer and was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He has been put on the spot and failed on several occasions. Jumped the wrong way too many times for it to be a coincidence.

Alas, it will always fail – no matter what Labour do, it will never be enough. This is the death knell for progressive politics. When it comes to actually voting, I vote SNP, so it does not bother me too much in that matter. However, watching my country die because of strutting little Englanders is heartbreaking.

Jim987

Chasing Reform voters

Labour’s chasing of the Reform vote is proving not only to be a moral disaster but could politically keep them out of office for years. But if the aim is to continue to assist the rich in staying rich (as all three main parties do – it’s their job), then it doesn’t matter to the rich who rules as long as they rule in their favour.

In fact, across the West as a whole, this is the aim – keep things the same whilst the real world is changing. It won’t last because it can’t last. If you want to grow an economy, whether it’s in Trumpland or Starmerland, you have to invest in infrastructure and services.

The big problem is that ALL the essential services are in private hands. Until you renationalise them, you can’t move or have any plans at all. It’s a very poor form of capitalism that can’t or won’t exploit labour from anywhere. And we are now overseen by people who have no idea how capitalism works but magically think that growth will just emerge, because just saying it will make it happen.

rishirich

Brexit made the fields rot

In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, the hostile environment forced out all the Eastern European migrant agricultural workers. The consequence was that all those previously complaining that “they’re stealing our jobs” failed to take up the vacancies created, and food was left to rot in the fields.

This wheeze from the Tory B team will, in my opinion, have a similar effect – except that it won’t be turnips left to rot, it’ll be your granny.

PinkoRadical

Pay more and invest in workers

We need to make blue-collar jobs more attractive by increasing wages and providing CPD and other incentives. The days of relying on cheap foreign workers must end. The damage being done to our country through mass immigration will take decades to heal.

saghia

We need foreign workers

I think the problem is that we don’t have enough foreign care home workers. British people would prefer to be on the dole than look after granny. This policy makes no sense. I suppose the assisted dying bill is aimed at lessening the numbers we need. Shame on Labour.

Villagelifeoneday

Brexit ruined care

We NEED care workers. Brexit decimated our good care workers, and they are now being replaced by many who can hardly speak English. Stopping care workers from abroad is MADNESS. Paying them more just puts the cost up for those who need care. Labour is not the socialist party anymore.

Pete135

Democracy is collapsing under stupid populism

This just highlights the problem with an awful lot of Western democracies at the moment. Labour is mimicking Reform because they see Reform as “what the people want”. The obvious problem though, is that Reform’s “policies” will benefit absolutely nobody, things will get loads worse, and Labour or anyone else promoting any sensible policies (not that Labour are at the moment) will not get voted for.

Reform or the Tories (who are essentially the same) will win, and things will continue to get worse. So the problem, in case you couldn’t work it out, is that the electorate are far, far too dim to even recognise what is in their own interests – let alone vote for it. Democracy is dying because we live in a world where the majority live outside of reality on most topics and cannot be convinced to vote in their own interests.

The bad end of the Dunning–Kruger effect has been deliberately exacerbated to garner votes (for Conservatives, because with a well-educated, well-informed public, they would get barely any votes other than from those who are rich or bigoted and can only think short-term). I am not optimistic anything will change in my lifetime, it only seems to get worse, and society is regressing at an increasing rate. Only some massive catastrophe seems likely to snap us out of it. And even then, we will inevitably cycle back to being dumber than dirt as a collective, if we manage to come out the other side anyway.

TrevSmith82

Care is big business

The issue is that care has become big business, run for maximising profit rather than giving staff and care receivers the best conditions. Of course, they go abroad to recruit – cheaper labour supplied by agencies – rather than training and making skilled caregivers more rewarded for their work.

Mintman

Wake up

The British people have to wake up and smell the coffee. British industry, farming, healthcare and social services cannot operate without immigrants. Until 2016, the UK was part of the EU, which allowed a reciprocal, structured and controlled movement of workers between member states. But Farage and the Tories did not like that and replaced it with a points system which wasn’t reciprocal and actually increased immigration, not from Europe but from all corners of the globe. And people who come here from Africa and India bring all their families with them.

Pomerol95

Nobody’s coming off benefits to do this work

Did the job for four years. At that time, the only one of us from outside the UK was a lovely lady from Colombia – all the rest of us were local. Now it seems to be 99 per cent overseas workers. To be honest, you would be hard pressed to find a white British person doing the job here in Cornwall. No one is going to come off benefits to do the job – that’s a fact the government has to face up to. To be honest, the country has to face up to that as well.

gtvv6

Who will care for people?

A ban on overseas recruitment in care homes? Who do the government think is going to do the hard work of providing care? Overseas staff have always been critical to both the NHS and social care sectors. It’s time the government stopped rule by Mail headlines and addressed some real issues.

rEUjoin

Too many not working while jobs are there

We have 1 million NEETs and millions of people either unemployed or working part-time/low hours and claiming UC/housing benefit. Many of these people don’t want to be care workers (or work much in general) but still want other taxpayers’ money to support them… This has to end. It will take a tough government to do this, but we can’t have so many working-age people not contributing taxes when the jobs are out there and their labour is needed. This country is far too soft.

ChrisMatthews

PR is the way to stop Reform

The way to stop Reform is to introduce proportional representation. True, under PR Reform would have more seats in Parliament – BUT so would the Greens and Lib Dems too. This would force the sensible parties to work together for the good of the UK. Farage has no answers to any of the real problems. People voted for his snake oil once before, but it would seem they have forgotten the disaster of Brexit!

Pateleylad

Hospitals and care homes rely on overseas staff

Go to any hospital or any care home and you will see how important overseas staff are to the health and care sector. The Brits don’t want to work in it, and certainly not for the wages that are paid or the respect that the jobs attract. So, within six months of the new restrictions coming into force, the NHS will be on the brink of collapse because it cannot discharge its patients into residential care homes. And many of those homes will close because they cannot get the staff to operate day to day safely.

Unless the government takes powers to force people to work in the sector, there will be a major problem of their own creation… And they had better hope that there are no elections when it happens. The one straw they can grasp is that neither the Tories nor Reform have policies that offer any solution yet.

sweepydog

Brexiteers must be delighted with their care home dream

Well, fair enough. The Brexiteers always claimed that thousands upon thousands of homegrown talent were simply unable to find employment in the one area they have been looking for for decades: elderly care. So, here it is – an influx of eager, highly skilled and top-motivated – and most importantly of all, Bri’ish! – people have finally been given the chance they have hungered for since we joined the EU. The older Brexiteers, for years having to suffer the indignity of being cared for by people who were born abroad, must be delighted! Best of luck!

SeanF

Time for social care to have its own cabinet post

Maybe it is time that social care had its own cabinet post – it is perhaps now too important to ignore. Under successive governments, always the bridesmaid, never the bride. It needs to have a professional structure with qualifications backed by statutory recognition. Perhaps, if not already the case, some employer NI concessions to help with costs.

Stein

Training locals is necessary

It’s all very well tightening immigration and restricting care workers from abroad. The government should work towards training UK citizens so that locals can fill the jobs where recruitment is a problem. Tinkering with the current laws is not going to work.

AHJ

A simple answer to a complex problem

I was a Labour Party member until about three months ago, and I’m beginning to despise them. They’re obsessed with beating Reform but don’t seem to understand why people are voting for Farage. Labour are considering voting for Reform as a cause when in reality, voting for Reform is a symptom. It’s a symptom of people having terrible jobs, no security, decaying towns with crime increasing, the poor and vulnerable getting worse off, waiting nine weeks to see a GP, then all you get is a phone call. These are the root causes of people’s unhappiness, and Reform has a simple reason for those problems – it’s the immigrants. Get rid of the immigrants, and we get rid of the problem. This, of course, is nonsense – a simple answer to a complex problem.

Labour’s mistake is to follow Reform in the hope of winning the next election, and that’s why they stay silent on Gaza and find themselves blaming immigrants. If Labour address the root causes of the problems outlined above, they would transform people’s lives and support for Reform would melt away. Instead, they’re going to squander the next four years trying to ape Reform and being scared of the Daily Mail. Starmer is Britain’s Joe Biden – he’ll be an irrelevant footnote in history, the timid man who allowed Farage into Number 10.

manatadesk

To fill vacancies, wages must rise

If you want to fill 500,000 vacancies, you’re going to have to put up the wages. Difficult, seeing how most of these care homes are owned by foreign concerns who milk the system and keep costs as low as they can. Most of them, with foreign and British owners, get away with very low wages to boost their profits!

tommy2tops

Families need more support

Families need to receive more in the way of government support, encouragement and financial help because, when possible, this is the very best form of care. Care homes should try to offer hostel-type accommodation for nurses, even if just willing locals with a room to let (there could be a tax bonus) – then there would be no shortage of nurses. The aged are the local community and need support at the local level. Volunteers, training made easier for local older workers. And a big shake-up in the way these places are run.

AgnesB

Care workers are highly skilled, just badly paid

Cooper is mixing up “low paid” with “low skilled”. Care workers are highly skilled, just badly paid. I’d love for her to do a week (without cameras) working in a care home looking after people with dementia. I bet she wouldn’t make it through a single shift. The reason care homes have to recruit from overseas is because people can make more money working at Tesco or Starbucks.

If you’re someone just looking for a job, rather than someone with a vocation for it, why would you work gruelling shifts on your feet for 12 hours at a time with no breaks and risk getting physically assaulted (which does happen regularly to my sibling, who is a carer) at close to minimum wage – when you can work somewhere else for better pay with fewer hours that’s much less physically and mentally demanding?

Want to prevent care homes from having to recruit from overseas? Force care homes to pay their staff what they’re worth. Social care is amongst the most expensive in Europe, yet the staff who work in social care in the UK have amongst the lowest wages. The money isn’t going to staff – it’s rolling into the accounts of massive corporations. Time to peg social care staff wages to those of the equivalent staff in the NHS, on AfC pay scales.

WellActually

The care system must be integral to the NHS

Until the “care system” is seen as an integral part of the NHS, the system will never work. I am old enough to remember convalescent homes, geriatric wards and local “cottage” hospitals that took in those discharged from the acute hospitals. There, they got physio and occupational therapy to prepare them to go home, and before they were released, anything they needed at home – e.g., rails or other safety devices – were fitted. Visits from district nurses and GPs etc. were arranged so they did not need to keep going back and forwards to A&E.

All this may cost but it will save in the long run, and any extra money can be found by charging national insurance on people who get their income from shares, bankers’ bonuses etc., and by scrapping the Upper Earnings Limit on NI contributions. This means that the rich pay more, but as they are the cause of so many of the problems we face today, that seems reasonable to me.

ListenVeryCarefully

Care homes should pay a living wage

Care homes should certainly pay a living wage. Unlike the agricultural sector, these jobs are available, I reckon, in most towns where there are many unemployed. Perhaps the long-term unemployed could or should be encouraged to apply until something better comes along.

BritElsewhere

Labour scrapped care reforms with nothing to replace them

One of the first things Labour did when they gained power was to scrap the plan the Tories had in place for social care reform. While the social care policy of the Tories was not perfect, at least it was a policy that would have helped many in the UK. Instead, Labour scrapped the social care reforms and didn’t replace them with anything, so we have a terrible system in place, which is a lottery for those unfortunate to get dementia, Alzheimer’s or other illnesses which require ongoing care that cannot be provided at home. This can easily obliterate a lifetime of savings and hard work for ordinary working people.

Now, despite the fact that we have a major shortage of care workers, Labour is now going to ban the recruitment of overseas workers who are willing and want to do this work. I’m not sure what Labour is aiming for here. It seems they are intent on losing the next election. I can’t imagine too many pensioners voting for Labour, and pensioners can well determine the outcome of a general election in the UK.

RichardtheLionheart

It’s simple: fund social care properly

I always find it amazing just how clueless politicians are. Most of them are well educated but still clueless. Care homes, in most cases, are paid x by the state and need to keep their expenses below x to make a profit or they go bust. It’s why the bulk of care work is minimum wage and usually regarded as a last resort job for a lot of folks.

The state can’t afford to pay the rates needed to attract and keep British staff, which is why care homes import labour from countries where wage rates are a lot lower. It’s not rocket science – in fact, the problem is quite simple to solve. Those in work pay more tax, and the state uses it to pay care homes a proper rate. Who wants to work in a care home all hours on minimum wage when you get the same money sweeping the street?

Noomie

Fuelling the rise of Reform

‘Policies’ such as this are a disgrace, especially coming from a supposedly Labour government. These attitudes will lead to the true weakening of Labour and will fuel the rise of Reform. Work in care homes is undervalued and underpaid. Many overseas workers come from cultures where the old are respected; we could learn a lot from them. Where exactly does this government think the extra British care home staff will come from?

Telling the unemployed to work in care homes is ridiculous – these are jobs that need skill and compassion, not employees who are ‘forced’ to take such positions. Starmer and his cohorts are not the Labour Party that many voted for, as is becoming obvious. Centre-left is fine, but this government is rapidly becoming marginally left of the Conservatives. “To each according to his need, from each according to his ability.”

Suney

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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