Immigration: leaders warn that proposed post-Brexit changes will harm the NHS and social care

Recommendations for the UK government to cut the salary threshold for people with job offers to work in the UK after Brexit do not go far enough to ease pressures on the NHS and would worsen them in social care, healthcare leaders have warned.

Last year the Home Office asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the use of salary thresholds for awarding immigration visas and to consider how the UK might adopt an Australian style, points based system to add flexibility (see box). In the lead up to Brexit, the government has promoted such an overhaul of the current system to allow highly skilled people to come and work in the UK but make it harder for less skilled migrants.

The committee’s report published on 28 January—three days before the official Brexit date of 31 January—advised against moving fully towards a points based system when free movement for EU citizens ends.1 Instead it suggested a mixed system, with a points based scheme for highly skilled migrants coming to the UK without a job, the …