Home secretary declines to outline cost of revised migrant settlement plans

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has declined to specify how much it will cost to scrap plans that would have forced foreign care workers already in the United Kingdom to wait longer for permanent settlement, BBC News reported. Mahmood said the full cost of the revised settlement plans will be laid out in the future. [1]

Mahmood originally proposed doubling the waiting period for most migrants from five years to 10 years, with some facing a 15-year wait. The Home Office had previously suggested that the original proposal could save 10 billion pounds. Under the revised plans, some foreign care workers will wait five years while others can seek a five-year extension, which the Conservative Party has called a U-turn. Mahmood stated that the government would still save billions because workers in other sectors will be affected. [1]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, Mahmood previously announced rules extending the wait time for permanent legal settlement up to 15 years, which raised concerns from Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and members of Parliament regarding its impact on health and social care workers. [4][5]