New visa rules ‘most significant changes since Brexit’

The government’s changes to rules on migration and visa income thresholds, which is feared could harm UK science and the workforce in other STEM sectors, was the subject of a special Prospect webinar in late March.

More than 50 of our members were in attendance for the discussion with Rachel Halliday of Thompson’s Solicitors and Martin McIvor from Prospect’s Research Team, who has also produced a Prospect Briefing on the new rules.

Sue Ferns, Prospect’s Senior Deputy General Secretary, chaired the webinar, and said in her introduction that the issue was a real concern for many of our members, particularly those working in the sciences, and that Prospect had been in correspondence with the Home Office to seek as much information as possible.

Martin began by giving a broad overview on the government’s new rules and their context in terms of pay and workforce diversity in STEM sectors.

He explained that the changes to the rules around Skilled Worker Visas were announced at the end of last year by Home Secretary James Cleverly for implementation this April and it was a “very political and media driven initiative.”

The minimum earning threshold for new Skilled Worker Visas was increased by nearly 50% from its previous position of £26,200 to £38,700.

“The impression we have is that the proposals and plans were cobbled together rather quickly. There were various background pressures to do with the Prime Minister’s position with his own backbenchers, and controversies over other policies he had in train to try and respond to alleged public concern about immigration,” said Martin.

Many of the early headlines focussed on the tighter restrictions on the availability of visas for care workers, and particularly for family members of care workers that come to work in the UK, as a blunt tool to drive down immigration numbers.

“More relevant to some of our Prospect members are the changes in both the general and the occupationally-specific minimum salary thresholds for skilled workers applying for visas to work in the UK, and combined with a change to what was previously called the shortage occupation list, which modified those thresholds for certain occupations effectively making them lower,” Martin explained.

“That’s now being replaced with something called the immigration salary list, which is similar but is different in two key ways. One is that it is much shorter; there are far fewer occupations listed on it. The other difference is the extent to which it lowers minimum salaries from the standard threshold is significantly less than was the case for the old shortage occupation list.”

Science and STEM

These changes are a particular concern for Prospect due to the specific characteristics of many of our sectors in science and STEM-based areas. They are intrinsically very multi-national with people from all over the world who have developed niche specialisms. The very nature of their work is to be collaborative across national borders.

Martin continued:

“The other key characteristic of many of these areas, not all but many of them, unfortunately is that comparatively they are quite low paid, especially when you take into account the levels of qualification and the experience involved. We have many members with advanced post-graduate qualifications, or very rare and specialist skills, whose salary is not what many members of the public, or indeed government ministers, might expect it to be.”

Slide from Martin’s presentation

The result is that many people with high-level qualifications and specialisms might now be caught in these new thresholds.

Employers in these areas have also expressed their concerns about the new rules, as it will make it harder for them to attract the best talent to remain at the cutting edge of research and development.

Martin stressed that a lot of the detail of the new plans were still being worked through. Prospect has been seeking answers from a ‘less than helpful’ Home Office on specific scenarios and situations.

“Our campaigning, lobbying and organising work on this issue is, first of all, making sure we get advice and support for any member who may be directly affected. Beyond that, we want to make sure the government is celebrating and welcoming the contribution of overseas workers to key sectors of the UK economy and society,” said Martin in conclusion.

“Of course, we also want to use this to highlight the need for better pay and job security for skilled and specialist workers in every sector that might be affected by this.”

Skilled Worker Visa

Rachel Halliday’s presentation focussed on the legal aspects of migration rules and, primarily looking at the Skilled Worker Visa and the requirements for employers, as well as the worker themselves.

“A Skilled Worker Visa allows you to work in the UK for a sponsor employer for up to five years. If you change jobs, or you change your employer, then you need to apply to update the Visa. So, it’s linked to the specific sponsor employer and specific job,” she said.

Slide from Rachel’s presentation

One of the keys to obtaining the Skilled Worker Visa is meeting the minimum salary requirements, which from April 2024 is £38,700 or the ‘going rate’ for the type of work.

Whereas previously the ‘going rate’ was taken from the 25th percentile of the 2021 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the new rules will use the 50th percentile of the 2023 data.

Rachel also touched upon the transitional arrangements for workers who are already in the process of applying for a Visa before 4 April 2024 when the new rules came into force, workers who already have a Visa and/or who want to extend it.

The operation of the Graduate Visa, Family Visas and Indefinite Leave to Remain were some of the other relevant issues raised.

Summarising the changes taken as whole, Rachel said:

“They’re probably some of the most significant changes since Brexit. Essentially making it a lot more expensive for UK employers to retain workers on Skilled Worker Visas. Regrettably, as Martin has outlined, it’s likely to have a number of negative impacts on UK workers and potentially on the UK economy.”

Download the newly updated Prospect Briefing:
New migration rules: threat to UK science and STEM