Reform UK’s plan to charge employers for overseas workers has opened a new political fight over migration, public services and who pays when hospitals, care providers and schools cannot fill jobs locally.
Nigel Farage’s party has pledged a “migrant worker surcharge” that would combine a higher rate of employer national insurance with a separate annual charge for staff without a UK passport, reports The Guardian. The proposal would also cover EU nationals with settled status, while Irish passport holders would be exempt.
Reports suggest the policy would apply across the UK without carve-outs for sectors that rely heavily on overseas staff, including the NHS, social care and education.
Reform argues the charge is designed to push organisations to hire British workers. Critics in health, care and education say that argument runs into a staffing problem: in many areas, they say, there are not enough UK workers available to replace overseas employees.
The King’s Fund said the cost of the plan remained unclear, but noted that 20% of NHS England staff are not UK nationals. Suzie Bailey, from the health thinktank, said the policy would “add costs to a service that is already stretched.”
The Royal College of General Practitioners also warned that GP practices could be hit hard because many are small independent services contracted to provide NHS care. Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, the college’s president, said higher employment costs or lower workforce capacity risked affecting patients’ access to care.
Care providers raised similar concerns. Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, said a levy weighted toward lower-paid workers would fall heavily on social care, where overseas recruitment has been used to meet rising demand and persistent vacancies.
Education groups said schools and universities could also face pressure. Nearly 6% of teachers in England are non-UK nationals, with overseas teachers more common in secondary schools and shortage subjects such as languages and physics.
