Mahmood refuses to put cost on care worker settlement climbdown

The home secretary has declined to specify how much scrapping her plan to make foreign care workers already in the UK wait longer to qualify for permanent settlement will cost.

Shabana Mahmood had originally proposed doubling the wait from five years to 10 for most migrants, with some facing a 15-year wait, which the Home Office suggested could save £10bn.

But under revised plans described by the Tories as a “U-turn”, some foreign care workers will continue to wait five years, and others will be able to seek a five-year extension.

While not detailing the cost of the revised plans, Mahmood told the BBC they would still save “billions” because workers in other sectors would have to wait longer.

In March, the Home Office said, external the net lifetime cost of care workers and their adult dependants expected to settle between 2026 and 2030 was estimated at £10bn under existing rules.

Mahmood was proposing to delay settlement for this cohort in response to concerns over record post-Brexit net migration figures under the previous Tory government – dubbed the “Boriswave” by critics.

She had previously argued that not delaying settlement for migrant care workers already in the UK would lead to a “£10bn drain on our public finances”.

Following a backlash, Mahmood announced on Monday that care workers who arrived in the UK before May 2025 and earned at least £25,000 a year would continue to qualify after five years, alongside some other groups.

Foreign care workers who do not qualify for the five-year settlement will be able to apply for a new five-year visa, and then seek settlement.

Just over 500,000 people will now be delayed from gaining permanent residency, down from almost 800,000 before Monday’s changes. Some 1.9m people will settle in the UK between 2026 and 2030, according to the Home Office.

Indefinite leave to remain (ILR), also known as settlement, gives a person the right to live, work and study in the UK for as long as they like and apply for benefits if they are eligible. They can also use it to apply for British citizenship.