“Curbs on migrant workers would be ‘dangerous’ for social care, warns government adviser”

The government’s top immigration adviser has attacked plans to prevent overseas care workers from bringing family members to the UK, warning that to do so could be “very dangerous” for the social care sector…

“The fundamental way you solve this problem is to pay care workers better. And the government has done absolutely nothing [about] that,” he said. He added that “until that missing piece” of solving workforce issues was addressed, it was “very dangerous to be playing around with the numbers on the social care route”…

Bell has also hit out at exploitation on the care worker visa route, warning that the evidence he has seen suggests the problem is “very serious”. There are widespread reports of care workers being charged thousands in recruitment fees, being underpaid, overworked, having unlawful deductions from their salaries, and being tied into contracts for several years. Exploitation cases in the care sector rose 606% between 2021 and 2022, according to Unseen UK.

“It beggars belief for me that we treat people who go into social care so badly that we don’t think that we should regulate whether the companies that work there are good. It’s terrifying,” Bell said.