Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules published on 12 March 2025. Changes in immigration rules relating to Skilled Worker visas including Health and Care visa, will take effect from 9th April 2025. Those recently published changes mainly relate to minimum pay for skilled workers, recruitment of care workers Soc Code 6135 and senior care workers Soc Code 6136 and deductions from salary for skilled workers.
Skilled Worker – changes to the provisions for care workers and senior care workers.
Changes are being made to the provisions for care workers and senior care workers. These changes are being made in response to the growing pool of workers in this route who no longer have sponsorship, because their sponsors have been unable to offer sufficient work and/or have lost their sponsor licences.
The changes require sponsors to try to recruit from this pool of workers who are seeking new employment before seeking to sponsor new recruits from other immigration routes or from overseas. To enforce this requirement, sponsors must provide confirmation from the relevant regional or sub-regional partnership that they have tried to recruit in this way, and confirm that no suitable workers were available from this pool.
These changes relate only to care jobs with working locations entirely in England. Applications relating to working locations in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland are unaffected.
The changes also do not apply to workers in England who were already sponsored in these occupations before the changes take effect (including those changing employers), or those switching from other immigration routes who have been working lawfully for their sponsor for at least three months.
Changes are also being made to update the minimum salary level from £23,200 per year (or £11.90 per hour) to £25,000 per year (or £12.82 per hour).
Going rates for individual occupations in healthcare and education are also being updated, where they are drawn from national pay scales, so that they continue to reflect the latest pay scales, Updates to going rates for other occupations are being made only to reflect the new minimum salary level of £25,000 per year / £12.82 per hour.
Skilled Worker – routine update to the minimum salary requirement and changes concerning deductions from an applicant’s salary.
Changes are being made to the rules concerning deductions from skilled worker migrant’s salary. According to Home Office, these changes are being made:
• for consistency with how paid allowances for the same purposes are treated,
• to mitigate against sponsorship costs being passed on to applicants, and
• to close an unintended loophole whereby applicants could effectively pay towards their own salary through investing in their sponsor’s business.
Following on from the above, any money paid by the skilled worker migrant to the sponsor (or a related organisation) will be considered as follows:
(a) The following payments will be subtracted from salary, unless (c) applies:
- deductions from salary; or
- (ii) repayments of loans; or
- (iii)investments.
(b) Any such subtractions will be averaged over the length of time the applicant is being sponsored for, for the purpose of salary considerations.
(c) Money will not be deducted where the payment is not related to business costs, immigration costs or investment, but rather an additional benefit offer which the applicant has a genuine choice whether to take up, for example salary sacrifice arrangements.
Additionally, transitional arrangements for salary on the Skilled Worker routewhen the applicant is applying for permission to stay or settlement, the applicant was granted permission as a Tier 2 (General) Migrant and has had continuous permission as a Skilled Worker ever since, for “a 40-hour working week”, substitute “a 37.5-hour working week”.
There are also changes to sponsorship and salary requirement for settlement as a Skilled Worker, where there was £23,200in rows D and E it will now be £25,000. Finally, a change is being made to confirm that, where an applicant is claiming a ‘new entrant’ salary reduction based on training towards a recognised professional qualification, this must be a UK qualification.
