Drop £30k visa salary threshold and cut red tape post #Brexit

The country’s leading universities are calling on Ministers to reform their post-Brexit immigration plans, which would make it difficult to fill thousands of scientific, teaching and technician posts and which could discriminate against part-time workers, who are predominantly women.

Based on new analysis carried out by EY, the plans being considered in Whitehall would make it difficult to hire vital international staff. This will have knock on effects for UK society and prosperity: the 24 Russell Group universities add £87bn to the economy each year and support around 261,000 UK jobs. To deliver these domestic benefits, universities must be truly international and able to recruit outside talent. Currently 48,000 Russell Group staff come from abroad – 26%. 

The Russell Group supports the Government’s vision for a future immigration system based on skills. However, the Home Office’s plans as currently drafted would hamper recruitment, deter sought-after individuals and prove difficult to administer, further undermining public confidence in the immigration system.

Responding to the extended consultation on the Government’s Immigration White Paper, the Russell Group is calling for:

1. The salary threshold for skilled workers entering the UK to be dropped to £21,000

The Government has said it will consult on the salary level needed to qualify for a skilled worker visa. If Ministers maintain the £30,000 threshold recommended by the Migration Advisory Committee, around 59,000 positions (a third of all roles) at Russell Group universities would not be open to migrant workers, because these posts would not meet the required skills level and salary threshold. Russell Group universities would therefore not be able to fill these positions from abroad – despite the fact around 10% (5,800) are currently filled by EU nationals, demonstrating the clear need for international recruitment.

According to EY’s research, the £30,000 threshold would be particularly problematic for certain types of role, such as technicians, scientific staff and also teaching professionals, such as lecturers and language assistants. Academics earning below £30,000 are usually younger members of staff at an earlier stage of their career, meaning the UK would have less access to the next generation of top international researchers.

A salary requirement of £30,000 would make it particularly difficult for part-time workers to secure a skilled worker visa. It relates to actual salary as opposed to “full-time equivalent” and cannot be pro-rated. 70% of the Russell Group’s part-time work force are women. Part-time workers from overseas looking to be employed in the UK would therefore face additional restrictions and this would clearly have a disproportionate impact on women. Parts of the country with lower average salaries would also be penalised.

The Home Office should drop the salary threshold to £21,000 – a level that would fit sensibly with the proposed skills threshold. A threshold higher than this would significantly restrict recruitment to many skilled roles, going against Government’s objective to ensure these are open to international talent under the future immigration system.

A workable system

At present, non-EU migrants coming to the UK to live and work must be sponsored by employers such as universities, businesses, schools and charities. Sponsors monitor visa compliance and report changes in an individual’s circumstances to the Home Office.

The Government has promised employers that, when freedom of movement ends and the checks on European migrants increase, the sponsorship system will be reformed to reduce the burden on employers. Simply expanding sponsorship to cover EU nationals would be unrealistic and unsustainable. It is already costly and bureaucratic. EY predicts, for example, that extending sponsorship to EEA nationals could see the costs rise by 50% in staffing and visa fees at Russell Group universities alone.

The Government has set out some initial ideas for how it intends to cut red tape and we support the approach to build on the EU Settlement Scheme. However, Ministers intend for the introduction of the new system to be “phased in” from January 2021. Given that universities and other employers will face an immediate increase in sponsorship duties and burden, a staggered approach is not good enough. Bearing in mind there will be a significant rise in applications, if the Home Office has not put in place the necessary infrastructure to administer the new visa system successfully by the Government’s January 2021 deadline, the EU Settlement Scheme should be temporarily extended for EU nationals until the new arrangements are fully operational.

The Government’s timings are extremely ambitious. The current points-based system took over 4 years to implement following the initial white paper being published in 2005. Government’s timeline is half that, this time round.    

Commenting, Chief Executive of the Russell Group Dr Tim Bradshaw said:

“Russell Group universities stand among the best in the world and are a proud national asset, precisely because we are international in nature. To deliver for our students and communities we need to attract the best minds from around the globe. For certain posts, for example technicians, we also face real shortages in our domestic workforce.

“The Home Office has said it will listen to concerns about its immigration plans. We are not alone – ask businesses up and down the country along with big public sector employers: setting a £30,000 salary threshold for skilled visas would be a serious own goal, limiting our ability to hire the migrant workers the UK needs and discriminating against part-time employees, who are predominantly women.

“This idea of phasing in the new rules, while well-meaning, is likely to create administrative chaos. A system that piles more red tape on employers and gets off to a disruptive start will only damage public confidence in the reforms. We hope Ministers will come back with realistic timings and a clear plan to deliver them.”