Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced that care workers will be exempted from new settlement plans that increase the time to qualify for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
Care workers who came to the UK after the pandemic, but before the original proposals were announced in May 2025, will keep a five-year route to settlement rather than a new 10-year period.
The same rules will apply to public sector workers in education and healthcare – for example auxiliary nurses.
Mahmood said rights granted under settlement, including access to the NHS and education, should “not be automatic, it should be earned”.
A criminal record, a failure to speak English to a high standard, unpaid debt to HM Revenue and Customs or a lack of national insurance contributions would disqualify them from settlement.
She added that the current system, under which people can apply for settlement after five years, does not represent true fairness.
Under the Home Office’s new proposals, legal migrants will be able to settle permanently in the UK after:
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