Care visa scheme rapped by watchdog

HOME Office officials do not fully understand how the skilled worker visa route works and what happens to migrants when it expires, says the National Audit Office.

- By Aine Fox

The route was introduced in 2020 in a bid to attract skilled workers to the UK.

But significant changes to the scheme since then “have not always been based on a full assessment of potential impacts,” it said.

Entry requirements were eased in 2022 for care workers in a bid to tackle staffing shortages but two years later the department tightened the rules, including a ban on dependants as the Tories tried to cut back on immigration.