Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has no idea how many temporary workers remain in the UK (Image: Getty)
The Home Office has no idea how many of the 931,000 immigrants who came to the UK as temporary workers have gone home after their visas expired. A skilled worker visa system designed to fill skills shortages after Brexit is in chaos, an official watchdog has found.
The Government expected 360,000 five-year visas to be issued over three years when the system was introduced in 2020, but the real figure was much higher. Numbers shot up after the Government decided to allow care workers to join the scheme following the Covid pandemic. And the Home Office is failing to check whether people really do leave the UK when they are supposed to, the National Audit Office warned.
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It said in a report: “The Home Office does not fully understand what happens to people who have entered the UK on Skilled Worker visas.”
Skilled workers can stay for up to five years and then must leave the UK, extend their visa, switch to another type of visa or can apply to settle permanently.
The Home Office has carried out investigations in the past to discover how many people leave the UK once their visas expire said the NAO, but the watchdog warned: “It has not repeated such analysis since introducing the Skilled Worker visa.”
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There were 648,100 applications for health and care worker visas after the scheme was expanded to include them in 2022. The unexpected influx had knock-on effects with the number of family members entering the UK rising from 55,200 in 2021 to 254,100 in 2023, and the number of people claiming asylum after entering the UK on a Skilled Worker visa rising from 53 in 2022 to 5,300 in 2024.
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Some of those in the UK on skilled worker visas are employed by the Government, including 204 people in the Department for Work and Pensions.
The Home Office has changed the rules in an attempt to cut the numbers coming in and from April 9 care providers in England seeking to recruit a new worker from overseas will have to first provide proof that they have attempted to recruit a worker resident in England.
The minimum salary threshold for skilled workers will increase to ￡25,000 per annum, up from ￡23,200.
The NAO said: “The Home Office does not have a full understanding of how the Skilled Worker visa route is operating. More people are using the Skilled Worker visa route than the Home Office anticipated in 2020. It forecast that it would issue 360,000 Skilled Worker visas to people entering the country over the first three years but has issued 931,000 visas over this period.”
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Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “The Home Office, and departments, must make better use of data to understand the impacts of changes to the Skilled Worker visa route, improve customer experiences and prevent the exploitation of visa holders. Without this understanding, it cannot ensure value for money in managing the visa system.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Under the last government there were a large volume of visas were granted seeing net migration in the millions. This government is getting a grip of this problem.
“Under our Plan for Change, our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system, linking immigration, skills and visa systems to grow our domestic workforce, end reliance on overseas labour and boost economic growth.”