THE NEW IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

WHAT EMPLOYERS NEED TO KNOW

3 AUG 2020

The government’s stated aim of the new immigration system is to encourage employers to move away from using the UK immigration system to recruit "cheap labour from Europe" as an alternative to wider investment in staff retention, technology and automation. 

To this end, from January 2021 there will no longer be a general route for employers to recruit overseas workers at or near the minimum wage.  From this date, a points-based system will apply for all overseas recruits, including EU citizens. This system favours highly skilled workers, skilled workers, students and a range of other specialist work routes. The cap on the number of skilled workers being allowed to enter the UK will be suspended and the resident labour market test (proof of advertising the vacancy to settled workers) will be removed. 

From 2021 there is no limit on the numbers of skilled workers who can come to the UK.

Most crucially, employers will need to sponsor EU citizens, as well as other overseas citizens who enter the UK after 31 December 2020 to be able to employ them in the UK. Employers without a sponsor licence who are intending to recruit new employees from overseas after 2020 should apply to the Home Office for a licence as soon as possible: https://www.gov.uk/uk-visa-sponsorship-employers

Points-Based System

To qualify under the new system which applies from January 2021, applicants must score 70 points (which is currently the case for non-EU citizens under Tier 2 sponsorship). They will need to score 50 points in the following compulsory criteria:

• The job must be at an appropriate skill level (RQF level 3 or above – equivalent to ‘A’ Level) (20 points).

• The job must have been offered by an employer with a sponsor licence (20 points).

• The applicant must be able to speak English to a good level (10 points). Applicants will need to complete a language proficiency test at an approved test centre.

• The salary for the role must be at least £20,480, and above the "going rate" for the type of job (0 points but this is a compulsory requirement).

Most applicants are expected to score the remaining 20 points by earning a salary of at least £25,600 (or the "going rate" for the type of job, if higher). However, if the individual will be paid less than £25,600 (subject to the minimum salary threshold of £20,480), they can still qualify for a sponsor licence by scoring the remaining 20 points by using any one, or a combination, of the following non-compulsory criteria:

• Salary of £23,040 to £25,599 (and above the "going rate" for the type of job) (10 points)

• PhD in a subject relevant to the job (10 points)

• PhD in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) subject relevant to the job (20 points)

• Job in a shortage occupation (the shortage occupation list will be confirmed by the Migration Advisory Committee from time to time) (20 points)

• A listed health/education job which meets the relevant national pay scale (20 points)

• The applicant is a new entrant to the UK labour market as defined by the criteria (20 points)

Additionally, those seeking entry to the UK can be refused entry where they have certain criminal convictions. Highly skilled workers will be able to enter the UK without a job offer if they are endorsed by a relevant and competent body.

Skilled Work: Health and Care Visa

The new Health and Care Visa will apply to eligible roles within the health and care sector including doctors, nurses, paramedics and pharmacists.  A reduced visa application fee applies compared to that paid by other skilled workers, including an exemption for applicants from the Immigration Health Surcharge. Visas on this fast-track route will be processed within 3 weeks. 

Care home staff have been excluded from this fast-track visa system for health workers, in a move that critics say could prove “an unmitigated disaster” and may increase the risk of spreading coronavirus in care homes due to a greater need for reliance, for example, on agency workers who work across settings. 37 leaders of national care providers including the NHS Confederation – the body that represents NHS leadership, have written to the government to share their concerns regarding the Immigration Bill, citing that one in six people working in the care sector are overseas nationals and that there are currently 122,000 vacancies in the sector in England alone, which may not be filled by relying on domestic recruitment only. Furthermore, care workers’ salaries fall below the Points Based System threshold. The government has urged employers to invest more in training and development for care workers in the UK to fulfill care staffing needs. Recruiting and training the right staff does of course take time.

Employing International Graduates

A new graduate immigration route will be available to international students who have completed a degree in the UK from summer 2021. They will be able to work in the UK at any skill level for up to 2 years, or 3 years if they are a PhD graduate. This will benefit UK employers looking for graduate recruits to fill lower skilled positions.

Immigration Skills Charge

This is a charge paid by the UK employer for each skilled migrant worker they employ through the Skilled Worker route. Sunless a specific exemption applies. Employers must pay £1,000 per skilled worker for the first 12 months, with an additional £500 charge for each subsequent six-month period. Discounted rates of £364 per sponsored worker per year will apply, as they do now under Tier 2, to charities and Small and Medium businesses.

Immigration Health Surcharge

This is a charge paid by the applicant up front for the duration of their stay in the UK. It gives them free access to NHS services on broadly the same basis as British citizens. As stated above, the government intends to exempt overseas frontline workers in the NHS and social care sector and wider health workers from the requirement to pay the Health Surcharge.

Right to work checks for EU Nationals

Employers can continue to accept the passports and national identity cards of EEA citizens as evidence of their right to work in the UK until 30 June 2021 (the deadline for applications under the EU Settlement Scheme).  

For EEA nationals that were recruited prior to 1 January 2021, there is no requirement to carry out any further right to work checks and employers may continue to rely on the existing right to work checks (such as an EU passport or identify card) as evidence of their right to work in the UK for the duration of their employment, or, in the alternative, on confirmation of the employee’s digital status under the EU settlement scheme or Euro TLR scheme via the Home Office’s online right to work checking service; or biometric residence card if they’re a non-EEA or Swiss citizen family member.

From 1 January 2021, in respect of any new recruitment from that date (this does not apply to existing EEA and Swiss employees employed before that date) employers will be under an obligation to check that all EEA and Swiss new recruits have a valid UK immigration status under the new immigration regime: a valid passport or national identity card will no longer be sufficient evidence to provide a statutory excuse.

3 AUG 2020