Rules which prevent migrant health and care workers accessing vital benefits for at least five years are causing severe hardship and, in some cases, leaving people going without food, a new Royal College of Nursing (RCN) report reveals.
The impact of the rules has been so significant that migrant nursing staff are more than twice as likely as those educated in the UK to be struggling financially, with two thirds (62%) considering quitting the UK due to cost-of-living pressures.
The RCN says this could put more pressure on health and care services across the UK, where there are over 40,000 vacancies inside the NHS alone.
The findings are revealed in an RCN report, titled: Without a safety net, which details the impact of ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF), a rule which denies migrants on temporary visas, such as the Health and Care Worker visa, access to benefits. The RCN is now calling for the rules to be ‘ended immediately’.
The RCN’s report, based on survey responses of over 3,000 international nursing staff, shows that those from overseas are twice as likely as domestic colleagues to report being in financial difficulty (30%;14%). Migrant health and care workers are almost three times as likely as UK counterparts to withdraw from their pension due to the cost of living (20%;7%). They are also much more likely to be responsible for all household costs (72%;58%).
The RCN says migrants on temporary visas being unable to access benefits such as Universal Credit, Child Benefit, and Housing Benefit leaves them and their families at a much greater risk of poverty and destitution. Migrants must have lived in the UK for at least five years before being able to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), which grants migrant workers access to the full suite of benefits. However, a single ILR application now costs £2,885, leaving many migrants trapped in poverty under temporary visa arrangements, and consequently unable to afford to apply for permanent residence.
A migrant nurse working in the East Midlands, said: “The impact of [NRPF] is enormous as I’m really struggling to make ends meet […]. Struggling to feed and clothe [my] children with no help from anywhere. I’m exhausted and financially drained.”
Another working in the West Midlands, said: “I have to borrow money from people. I have to go without food at times. I have to rely on [my] abusive ex [partner]. I felt very low in my life. I felt [like] giving up.”
A migrant nurse working in the South West, said: "[…] it is another way of saying 'we care less about your welfare but interested more about what you have to offer our society'. Immigrants in the UK go above and beyond to maintain their various jobs, including myself, therefore, it is extremely painful to be excluded from gaining access to public funds […] It is a bad policy, in my opinion and discriminatory."
The RCN is calling for an end to the ‘unequal treatment’ of migrant health and care staff, which sees them work and pay tax alongside UK colleagues, but unable to access the same benefits. The College says ending NRPF and equalising access would make the UK a much more attractive place to be a migrant nurse. The College is also urging the government to reduce visa fees, including ILR application costs.
The RCN’s advice line is receiving 8 calls on average each week from migrant nursing staff in financial difficulties. These include calls from those diagnosed with cancer ineligible for sickness or disability benefits and instances of nurses fleeing their homes due to domestic violence but being unable to access Universal Credit to support their living costs.
Recent data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) shows that the number of migrant nursing staff with intentions to leave the UK hit 8,931 in 2022/23, more than 14 times higher than in 2018/2019. The nursing union has warned that more will leave to other countries for better salaries and welfare support. One in five professionals on the NMC register were educated abroad.
Executive Director for RCN England, Patricia Marquis, said:
“Migrant nursing staff are part of the DNA of our health and care services, they always have been. Every day patients in our hospitals and communities rely on their outstanding care, and they deserve to be treated equally to those educated in the UK.
"As it stands, the current system denies migrants access to vital benefits, despite them paying tax and doing the same work as their domestically trained colleagues. The reality is that migrant nursing staff pushed into poverty will simply choose somewhere else to do their nursing – this is a tragedy for patient care.
“Ministers must lead from the front and show that migrant nursing staff are welcome here and have the same value as their domestic colleagues. The no recourse to public funds condition applied to migrant workers must be ended immediately.”
Ends
Notes to editors
In the RCN’s survey of internationally educated nursing staff, they found that:
- Almost two-thirds of internationally educated survey respondents (62%) have considered leaving the UK and returning to their country of training due to the cost of living.
- 30% of internationally educated respondents reported that they are struggling with their living costs and increasingly worried about their financial situation. IENs were more than twice as likely to report this concern compared to UK trained staff (reported at 14%).
- 54% of internationally educated respondents reported working more than their contracted hours or withdrawing/reducing contributions from employer’s pension scheme over the last 12 months (compared to 47% of UK trained staff).
- 20% of internationally educated respondents have withdrawn or reduced contributions from their employer’s pension scheme compared to 7% of UK trained respondents.
