Overseas workers who have lived in the UK for five years will have to prove they will be paid the new minimum threshold in order to stay in the country. The UK Government temporarily exempted nurses from the new rules last autumn in response to fears about widespread shortages of workers across the NHS. But the earnings threshold
could be applied to migrant nurses in the future should the Government decide to take them off the Shortage Occupation List.
According to The Independent, a new Home Office policy stipulates that those who fail to demonstrate earnings of more than £35,000 will be denied settlement in the UK and will face deportation.
But the UK’s Home Secretary, Theresa May is facing calls to rethink the “discriminatory” new earnings threshold of £35,000 for non-EU migrants that could starve Britain of vital talent in the teaching, charity and entrepreneur sectors when the changes take effect in April.
Former Cabinet minister Alistair Carmichael, who was David Cameron’s Scottish Secretary before the election, said that discriminating on the basis of income would harm the UK’s place at the “forefront of the global economy”, while shadow immigration minister Keir Starmer said there were “real concerns” over how key industries would be affected.
Mr Starmer, who served as the Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008-2013, urged ministers to “look more closely” at the threshold, which is currently £20,800 – around £5,000 less than the average UK salary.
A petition launched earlier this week to try to force the UK Government to rethink the sharp rise in the minimum income requirements has attracted more than 2,000 signatures.
The petition, which is asking the Government to scrap the new £35,000 threshold for non-EU citizens, could be debated by MPs if it reaches 100,000 signatures but only needs 10,000 to receive a response from the Government.
The Independent
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