Experience of Health & Care Worker Visa holders
Homecare Workers' Group has been contacted by numerous homecare workers who have come to England from overseas via the Health & Care Worker Visa scheme. Mistreatment, exploitation, labour abuse and modern slavery are sadly all now terms which apply within England's social care sector. This is a result of both the design of the scheme itself as well as how some workers are treated by employers and by middle-men who act as recruiters.
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The Health & Care Worker Visa scheme recruits workers into full-time contracts, yet these hours are incompatible with humane employment conditions all the while homecare agencies continue the practice of unpaid travel time, which affects an estimated 75% of domiciliary care workers. For overseas workers who take up these full-time roles in domiciliary care, they must be out at work for far longer than 40 hours a week to meet the terms of their employment contract.
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At the other end of the spectrum, others find their employer is unable to provide them the hours promised and in some cases, no work is offered at all, such that individuals are simply unable to make ends meet.
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It is commonplace for Health & Care Worker Visa applicants to be illegally charged thousands of pounds in so-called 'processing' or 'admin' fees by middle-men who act as recruiters for employers. For those working in domiciliary care, many come to the UK without being told that they will need to buy their own vehicle to use for work, plunging them into further debt.​
Many are afraid to speak out in case their employer loses their sponsorship license as a result, since that could mean they lose their right to remain in the UK, leaving their debts going unpaid and their immense personal sacrifices to move here in vain.
Homecare Workers' Group will do everything it can to support all migrant care workers and to draw attention to the specific nature of mistreatment being experienced by far too many.
Considering the immense social value of the work these individuals are do for within our communities, this represents a despicable new form of modern slavery, hiding in plain sight in neighbourhoods throughout the country.