Unions challenge ministers over 10-year wait for UK settlement
Trade unions have urged ministers to soften plans that would require most migrants to wait 10 years rather than five for permanent settlement in the UK.
What the plan would change
Under the proposals, the normal wait for settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain, would rise from five years to 10. Settlement is the right to live and work in the UK without renewing a visa. The BBC reported on 15 September that the plans were announced last year by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who stayed in post under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham BBC.
People who arrived on health and social care visas would wait 15 years. People who had relied on benefits for more than 12 months would wait 20 years. The changes would not affect people who already have settlement. They would apply to people already living in the UK who do not yet have it. Ministers said they received 200,000 responses to the consultation, a formal call for views, which was launched under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
What the unions said
Delegates at the Trades Union Congress, the annual meeting where unions agree joint policy, voted unanimously for a motion on the plans. The motion said any changes affecting workers already in the UK should be withdrawn. It said the five-year route to settlement should stay for workers.
Unison, described as the UK's biggest union, said it was alarmed at what it called sweeping attacks on migrant workers. It said the effect would be to leave them as second-class citizens. Its senior vice-president Debbie Rowden said the government planned a three-year route to settlement for bankers, compared with 15 years for social care workers. The Society of Radiographers said international technician numbers in the NHS fell by 12%, by more than 1,500, between January and March this year BBC.
Why the detail matters
The broader context here is less about the idea of earning settlement and more about timing and different waits for different groups. Whitehall has discussed longer qualifying periods before. The new element is that people admitted on a five-year expectation could face a longer wait part-way through. MPs will recognise this from past rule changes, when constituents with limited leave and employer-sponsored visas ask where they stand. A 200,000-strong response gives officials a large sorting task and gives both sides a number to quote. For unions, a unanimous vote is a mandate to press for exemptions. For the Home Office, the tiered system sets up the next debate about contribution and staffing, since settlement rules can affect whether NHS staff stay.
