The government’s failure to deliver a timely NHS pay award risks making overseas nursing staff ineligible for their visa renewals, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned.
In a letter to the home secretary, RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said that the delay to the NHS pay award – which should have taken effect from April – will make Band 3 nursing support staff ‘ineligible’ for visa renewals.
Last month, the Home Office announced that the minimum salary threshold for staff on the Skilled Worker Visa in England would increase from £23,200 to £25,000.
The government is yet to confirm when it will deliver the 2025/26 NHS pay awards, despite health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, previously committing to a pay announcement as near to April 1 as possible.
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The salary threshold changes are due to start on April 9, before the RCN expects this year’s NHS Agenda for Change pay award to be implemented.
‘If action is not taken by the Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care to address this gap, it will have devastating consequences for those affected,’ Professor Ranger wrote.
The union head warned that unless nursing support staff pay is brought above the salary threshold, entry-level NHS workers could be made ‘permanently ineligible for visa renewal, with significant ramifications for the nursing workforce’.
‘There is a risk that if governments do not take action to ensure that 2025/26 pay scales provide Band 3 staff with a salary above the new threshold, these roles will no longer be eligible for sponsorship,’ Professor Ranger explained.
Unless the changes are prevented, those who are unable to renew their current visas will have 60 days to seek alternative employment that takes them above the £25,000 threshold under the new sponsorship rules.
The RCN says it has already had nursing staff raise concerns about the changes in the threshold.
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The union believes the changes could also damage the social care sector, with many care roles falling short of the new £25,000 a year threshold.
The government has committed to a Fair Pay Agreement for social care staff, but the RCN says implementing the new threshold before any pay agreement risks leaving care workers without sponsorship and at risk of exploitation from their employer.
The trade union Unison has echoed the RCN’s concerns and yesterday warned that some overseas workers could soon be deported because they are unable to renew their visas.
Unison head of health Helga Pile said: ‘The NHS could lose essential staff recruited from overseas because pay rates are out of sync with the visa salary threshold.
‘Trusts have been put in a terrible position and migrant workers whose visas are about to run out are being caused untold distress.’
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The Home Office has been contacted for comment
