(qlmbusinessnews.com . Tues 13th May, 2025) London, UK —
Yvette Cooper to Ban New Care Worker Visas as Part of Migration Crackdown
Care homes will soon be barred from hiring new care workers from abroad as part of a government drive to curb low-skilled migration, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced. Instead, employers must recruit from the UK workforce or grant visa extensions to existing overseas staff.
Speaking on BBC’s *Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg*, Cooper said it was “time to end that care worker recruitment from abroad.” The incoming immigration White Paper, due next week, is expected to abolish new visas for lower-skilled roles—including care assistants—and raise the skilled-worker threshold from A-level to graduate level.
The changes, she added, will reduce the number of lower-skilled and care-worker visas by up to 50,000 over the next year. They form part of a broader package aimed at cutting net migration, which peaked at 906,000 in mid-2023 before falling to 728,000 last year.
Under current rules, temporary shortage occupations—such as carpenters, graphic designers and pharmaceutical technicians—can be filled by overseas applicants at 80% of the going rate. Cooper indicated this “Immigration Salary List” would be pared back, with fewer exemptions.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp welcomed the end of overseas care recruitment but called for a formal migration cap, promising to table amendments that would further cut arrivals. He argued that a cap of significantly below 50,000 would better control migration.
Cooper also revealed plans to tighten oversight of international students, insisting universities uphold rigorous admissions standards to prevent drop-outs and visa overstays. She stressed that genuine students and graduates would still be able to come, work and remain in the UK.
The government has already tightened care-sector visas since last July, banning dependants on Health and Care Worker visas and requiring firms to prove they first tried to hire locally. Cooper said fresh rules would compel employers to draw on a reserve pool of 10,000 overseas workers already in the country if they cannot recruit UK staff.
To make care roles more attractive domestically, she pledged a “fair pay agreement” for the sector. However, industry leaders such as Nadra Ahmed, Executive Chairman of the National Care Association, warned that the measures could exacerbate staffing shortages, while Liberal Democrat Helen Morgan criticised the plans as insufficient to solve the long-running crisis in social care.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage blamed his party’s electoral gains for prompting the crackdown, asserting that stricter immigration laws must also ensure newcomers can integrate successfully.
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