The government has renewed funding to help overseas care staff who have lost work and are facing removal from the UK due to “unethical” employment practices or providers not complying with visa rules.
However, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has reduced the level of the international recruitment fund from £16m in 2024-25 to £12.5m this year, divided between 15 regional partnerships of English local authorities and care provider representatives, headed by a lead council.
The fund is designed to tackle the issue of staff coming to the UK to work in social care on skilled worker visas and having to leave their jobs, either due to exploitation or unethical practices or because employers have not complied with immigration rules.
Where Home Office agency UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) finds non-compliance, it may suspend or revoke an employer’s licence to sponsor workers from abroad. While suspension prevents employers from hiring new staff from abroad, revocation means existing staff will lose their certificate of sponsorship, giving them 60 days to find a new sponsor or leave the country.
Increasing reports of staff exploitation
Between July 2022 and December 2024, the government revoked more than 470 sponsor licences from care sector employers, reflecting increasing reports of workers facing exploitation, including from watchdog the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).
Many workers have reported being forced to work excessive hours with the threat that their sponsorship would be cancelled, said the GLAA.
Others were forced to pay off debts resulting from excessive fees charged to secure work, or reported not being properly paid, living in unsuitable conditions while being charged high accommodation fees and, in some cases, being offered no work at all.
It is not clear how many overseas staff have been affected by exploitation or visa non-compliance, but last year, the then Conservative government tasked the regional partnerships with providing pastoral support to affected workers and finding them new jobs. This included setting up a mailbox for care workers to contact should they require assistance.
New roles found for some overseas care workers
Between July 2024 and February 2025, about 8,800 people contacted regional partnerships for help, of whom about 550 had been found new roles, said care minister Stephen Kinnock, in a recently published response to a parliamentary question.
Stephen Kinnock (photo: Richard Townshend Photography)
However, he said that neither the DHSC nor UKVI had verified the data and that, in some cases, regional partnerships were supporting care workers not affected by sponsor licence revocation.
Earlier this month, the government tightened immigration rules by requiring English providers to first seek to recruit from the pool of displaced workers before bringing new staff in from abroad, a policy now backed by the renewed international recruitment regional fund.
DHSC wants ‘significant increase’ in employment of displaced staff
Compared with 2024-25, the aims of the fund in 2025-26 are more tightly focused on finding new roles for displaced staff, as well as tackling unethical practices by some employers.
The DHSC said it wanted partnerships to:
- Significantly increase the number of displaced staff accessing support and “finding new, ethical, sponsored employment”.
- Substantially increase the number of providers engaging with them and raise awareness of the pool of workers available to support their workforces.
- Improve intelligence sharing regarding international recruitment to inform and support UKVI and other enforcement bodies “to clamp down on unscrupulous providers”.
How partnerships can use £12.5m in funding
As well as providing a mailbox for care workers to contact, the department suggested partnerships could provide an employment support service, either through local authorities or an external organisation, to facilitate introductions with employers and help staff with CV writing and interview skills.
It also suggested maintaining a register of ethical providers, not limited to those who have previously sponsored overseas workers.
They will be expected to collect monthly metrics on the number of staff securing new sponsorship and contacting mailboxes for support, and the number of providers engaging with them, and report to the DHSC on the impact and use of the fund.
Growing use of overseas staff ‘a significant success’
Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) regional lead trustee Martin Samuels said the significant growth in the number of overseas workers in adult social care, since the relaxation of immigration rules in 2021, had largely been a “significant success”.
“Lots of parts of the country are benefiting from really high-quality workers,” he said.
However, one adverse impact was that some organisations had wrongly been given licences to sponsor overseas staff,” he added.
Samuels, executive director of adult care and community wellbeing at Lincolnshire council, said: “It’s been a combination of some illegitimate organisations getting through, some not competent organisations getting through and just not realising the complexities of employing international workers, and some cases where the organisation wanted to work in a particular way but then only realised that that wasn’t within the rules.”
Lack of data on affected migrant care workers
He said the sector had faced a “steady stream” of cases of UKVI suspending or revoking sponsorship licences.
However, while UKVI told councils which organisations had had licences revoked and how many certificates of sponsorship they held, this did not tell them how many staff were affected.
“I think about 3,000 certificates have been cancelled in the East Midlands,” he said. “That might be 500 people who have found themselves repeatedly working for organisations where the licences had been cancelled or it might be 3,000 people.”
Samuels said UKVI had provided the East Midlands partnership with the email addresses of displaced staff where this was known, and it made two or three attempts to contact them and offer support, with about a 20% response rate.
“What we don’t know is whether the 80% are real people, or have quickly found themselves a job through another employer or they are disappearing into the undergrowth or are victims of modern slavery,” he added.
Supporting staff to find work
He said the East Midlands partnership had co-ordinators in each of the region’s geographical patches who worked with providers to find new roles for the staff.
The partnership was also supporting workers to improve their English, become more accustomed with local customs and get a UK driving licence, where these were barriers to them finding roles, work that was being replicated across the other regions, Samuels added.
He said the £12.5m in funding for 2025-26 was sufficient and praised the DHSC for the support it was providing the sector on this issue.
Union urges revamp of sponsorship system
For UNISON, head of social care Gavin Edwards said: “International recruits providing care in the UK shouldn’t need protection from exploitation, fraud and mistreatment at work.
“Regional support hubs set up by the previous government have been slow to establish, and the quality of help and advice has sometimes been patchy. But they’re providing a vital service that must continue.”
However, he said there needed to be wider reform of the visa system, so sponsorship was sector-wide and managed by the government, adding: “Care workers wouldn’t then be dependent on one employer, and rogue providers couldn’t threaten them with dismissal or deportation.”
Provider representative body Care England’s chief executive, Martin Green, said: “We regard the development of these regional partnerships as positive because we must ensure that colleagues who have come from overseas are supported if they lose their current roles.”
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My sister from overseas who is currently working as care assistant has been experiencing exploitation and forced to give resignation and they intentally created disciplinary action against her to give bad references. She has got job as nurse in an NHS Trust, but the manager at NHS refusing to give unconditional offer due to bad references. She and her family going through though time without job and money. There is no system here helping her to find a solution. Don’t know what to do?
I think your sister should consider seeking legal advice and action against her previous employer. She can call ACAS helpline on 0300 1231100 and state all the facts of her case. It is free and confidential advice. She should also contact her regional hub to seek support.
Yes she should without histation.
I really appreciate this action from government.
I am a carer for last 25 years and I have seen care agency exploited carers from outside by taking money from under table to get visa and care agencies have made lots of money and now they don’t bother if their agency run or not they already made their money since Covid by bringing staff from overseas and they are send to work with no training. Imagine how do the service user feel getting poor service . I don’t want this service when I get old and pay lots of money to be looked after by unprofessional people. There is now no work for us as they are given to overseas workers why don’t the government train people from here who are unemployed.
How do you contact them please
This is so kind of UK kudos to UK government
Thanks to the UK government hope this will be implemented care workers are going through alot regarding cos and sponsorship licence revoked
Aoa brother! How do we contact them
I agree with you. Thanks to the government’s intervention, but deterrent action must be taken by sending to prison those unscrupulous people who fraudulently took innocent people’s money. The witnesses are there, it’s the victims who fell into the trap of those cruel money mongers
One company sent letters to the staff that their license was revoked even when it had not been revoked just to chase the workers because they didn’t have jobs for the workers. The license was later revoked, they lied to the home office that the workers are the one not working for them anymore. Home Office believes the company over the workers and send them letter to find another sponsor or leave the country.
Setting up Regional Hubs was the right move by the Government. Please go further and provide a link with new scrupulous Employers and Employment Agencies. However, not many exploited Care Workers know about the scheme. I urge the Government to publicise or advertise the Regional Hubs more and to demistfy the suspicion that reporting to these Regional Hubs will put the Carer in trouble with immigration. That could be the reason why many Carers prefer to go underground and get exploited in many ways rather than report to the Regional Hubs. Some quickly find dodgy ‘boyfriends’ who take them in to suffer sexual abuse.in silence.
Thanks for taking these steps to help some of us who are stranded because of visa sponsorship. We hope employers find us soon in the pole.
How do you get into the pool please
I have been a victim of this scam and left wondering in uk after I came here my company didnot allow me to work a single day . I took so much loan to come and work here and now can’t go back. Please help as I haven’t seen my family and they are away from me. Can someone help us
I came to the UK as a carer and worked so well but on my renewal for my visa after a year home office delayed to issue COS to my company.We applied our for our visas a month after our visas expired ..most of my colleagues if not all were issued their visas expect for me but we were all in the same predicament.i am not sure why I was discriminated.its been almost a year now without work and I have 3 children .was stopped from working because I didn’t have right to work .life has been so difficult.i am soaked in debt .i sometimes go to bed hungry with my children without eating anything.I am still waiting for home office to respond to me and every time i write to them thy always say they have lots of applications and they are delays.life has been so hard for me and my kids.i am so stressed and I don’t even kno when I had a good night sleep because of debts wich are piling up everyday.i don’t even know when I last had a proper meal.This have even affected my children performance at school.
I commend the UK Government’s recent efforts to address the unethical practices within the care sector, particularly concerning the exploitation of overseas carers. The initiative to prioritize UK-based carers affected by sponsor license revocations is both timely and commendable. However, I feel compelled to express serious concerns regarding the persistent non-compliance by many sponsoring employers.
Despite clear directives from the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), there are numerous reports that some employers continue to demand payments from vulnerable carers in exchange for Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS). This exploitative practice persists even after these employers have been explicitly instructed to offer these certificates to carers already residing in the UK and affected by recent regulatory changes.
Alarmingly, it appears that many of these employers are deliberately allowing CoS allocations to expire, simply because they are unwilling to issue them without financial gain. In some cases, employees who have been working for months under the promise of sponsorship are still being denied their CoS unless they pay significant fees. This practice not only undermines the spirit of the government’s reforms but also causes immense psychological and financial distress to those affected.
The challenge lies in enforcement. Without a robust and transparent monitoring mechanism, these exploitative practices will continue unchecked. I urge the relevant authorities to strengthen oversight, introduce whistleblower protections, and impose stricter penalties on employers who violate sponsorship obligations.
It is disheartening to see vulnerable individuals being taken advantage of in such a systematic way, especially when they are contributing significantly to the UK’s health and social care system. A more proactive and transparent enforcement strategy is urgently needed to ensure that the government’s well-intentioned reforms achieve their full impact.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
The govt should go further and allow the affected carers to find jobs with any employer as long as they are in the care sector regardless of them holding a sponsorship licence. There are so many unfilled vacancies and so many displaced carers, the bottle neck is the licences. Even companies with licences are no longer using them, preferring to employ on bank basis, where they create a pool of carers on 20 hours per week, all this to avoid the annual fees they should pay to govt. The exploitation you highlighted will be stopped instantly if carers are allowed to find a job even with care companies without licences like the Union boss said, it should be sector wide rather than company specific. The licencing system is creating an artificial shortage and room for exploitation by unscrupulous employers
I must commend the efforts of the government and the UKVI in ensuring that all unfortunate people who lost their jobs and their Sponsorships are well treated with the funds provided to cater for their families pending a proper resolution is achieved… I must confess that I am a victim of this menace and I have been in care industry since I came into the country and still manage 20hrs shifts, I am really going through a lot with my two kids and barely survive the monthly bills, I just hope this resolution is going to help me get a sponsor because I had taken all necessary steps advised for the past few months since I received the mails and I was given a case worker who is passionate about my predicament and has been helping out on getting a sponsor.. just wish to use this medium to tender a plea that the government be magnanimous to help me and everyone going through these tough times because I had collapsed all my structures before leaving home and even sold few of my properties whilst here to pay my bills now.
My kids are doing very well and already getting used to the new system, telling them that we are no longer staying here could demoralise them and I sincerely don’t want them to suffer because returning home is returning to abject pain with no help..
Hmmm I can’t explain how much pain I am battling with without a stable job.
I wish UKVI would change the CoS to a work permit in the health and care sector. This change would provide both employers and employees with the right to work in good conditions without fear of license revocation and exploitation.
Very true. This is what is needed. Not to have the employee tied to a company but rather tied to the government.
So much wickedness and inhumane treatments from some of these employers, taking so much advantage of oversee employees. Meanwhile the government that gave them the opportunity to start up a company didn’t take any advantage of them.
This is a good innovation and I think more can be done against employers exploiting employees, especially the non indigenous employers. So many illegal and inhumane treatments by some of these employers and I feel they should feel the wrath of the law more. With more assurance by the government covering oversee employees, more employers will be exposed.
Furthermore, I want to also suggest that an employee whose COS is revoked by an employer be given the opportunity by the UKVI for explanation because most of these employers are pathetic liars and a fraudsters, they only care about the money they’re making and not the really about the welfare of the clients or employees.
Thank you.
I hear stories of care worker that they’re in have debts because they were asked for money to get COS. They now straggling to pay back the money they borrowed inorder to secure the COS.some have sold their property , cars and furniture in order to get COS. They cant say nothing in fear of loosing thier jobs. I think it was wrong for Agencies to ask , and recieve any money from people applying for COS and I think Government should help these carers recover their money.
Thousands of migrant care workers have no job. Companies are maintaining fake payrolls. The life of migrant care workers are terrible in this country. There is no Justice, no human rights for them. Although Uk needs care workers, but they are not going to find a real solutions for them. I didn’t see any care worker yet who got alternative employer by regional partnership. Sector-wise sponsorship is the only way for the permanent solutions of migrant care workers. Uk govt should listen Unision proposal.
I was also a victim of these unethical practices by the unscrupulous and rogue operators in the care sector. Since I got to this country almost two years now, I have not worked for once in the care sector, after my sponsor had collected a huge amount of money from me before I was issued COS. It was so pathetic. The most annoying part of it is that my employer gave me a fictitious and non-existent address. It was when I got to the address that I realized that my company doesn’t exist. I sent them several messages via my email, rather than responding to my distress and concerns, they preferred to remain mute, no response. Till date, I’m still battling with emotional and psychological trauma. I hope something urgent and proactive is being done by the UK govt to prevent and address this menace afflicting all unsuspecting victims of manipulative and exploitative practices in the care sector.
Thanks.