London, 25th June 2026
Some of this week’s news coverage has centered on a single figure from the Migration Advisory Committee: the estimate that an overseas care worker who arrived in 2022/23 will have a net lifetime fiscal impact of around minus £36,000. It has been described as a “staggering bill” and used to argue for extending the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain. The Care Workers’ Charity recognises that the fiscal impact of a visa route is a reasonable thing for government to consider. The figure now in circulation, however, has been separated from the context the MAC itself provided, and is being used to support a policy the report does not endorse.
The MAC presents minus £36,000 as a lifetime projection in present value terms, not a current cost. The MAC is also clear that lifetime figures of this kind are easily misread. To show how sensitive they are to method, the MAC’s own worked example demonstrates that a single applicant’s estimated deficit can move from minus £1.4 million to minus £148,000 depending only on whether it is adjusted for mortality and the standard discounting of future costs, and the MAC warns explicitly against quoting figures that do not make those adjustments. In the same body of work it shows that a single applicant’s estimated deficit can move from minus £1.4 million to minus £148,000 depending only on whether it is adjusted for mortality and the standard discounting of future costs, and it warns explicitly against quoting figures that do not make those adjustments. The headline number is also quoted without a comparator. On the same lifetime measure, the MAC estimates UK residents as a whole at a mean of minus £39,000. Presented in isolation, minus £36,000 reads as alarming. Set against the MAC’s own benchmark, and against UK residents of the same age, the MAC itself describes care workers as broadly comparable.
The MAC is also clear about what drives the result. It states throughout that the figure is determined by employment rates and earnings, not nationality or migration status. Care workers model as fiscally negative because they are among the lowest paid workers in the country. A UK born worker on the same wage would produce a similar result. The figure being reported as a cost of migration is, on the MAC’s own analysis, a measure of low pay.
That is the reality The Care Workers’ Charity sees in its own data. Our 2025 Wellbeing Survey found that 57.41% of care workers identified low hourly pay as the single biggest contributor to their financial insecurity, and that 72.06% do not feel financially secure, rarely feel secure, or have no financial security at all. More than a quarter of respondents had relied on food banks, and more than one in ten had used a payday lender or loan shark, compared with around 1.1% of the general public.
The consequence of using the figure this way is significant. The coverage links minus £36,000 to extending the route to Indefinite Leave to Remain, yet the MAC’s own conclusion is that a longer route to settlement does not necessarily improve the fiscal position and may worsen it, particularly if it deters higher earners or harms integration and progression at work. Migrant care workers already pay the Immigration Health Surcharge and visa fees while having no recourse to public funds. Using a figure stripped of its context to justify keeping them in insecure status for longer is both unfair and self defeating. It also sets aside the MAC’s own repeated caveat that fiscal contribution is only one measure of a person’s value, and one that captures none of the care these workers actually deliver.
Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, said:
“I want to be clear with the Home Secretary that overseas care workers are not a cost to this country. The figure being quoted is real, but it has been separated from the comparator and the cause that the Migration Advisory Committee itself set out. What it measures is how poorly we pay the people who look after our parents and grandparents. Using it to make those same workers wait longer for security is unfair to people who are already holding this sector together. I am asking the Home Secretary to meet us, to hear directly from internationally recruited care workers through our Care Worker Advisory Board, and to base settlement policy on the whole of the evidence rather than a single figure taken out of context.”
What needs to change
The Care Workers’ Charity is calling for:
- No move from the current five-year qualifying period for settlement to the proposed ten years should be justified on fiscal grounds, given the MAC’s own conclusion that a longer route to settlement does not necessarily improve the fiscal position and may worsen it. The people this figure describes are the ones looking after our parents and grandparents, and they should not be made to wait twice as long on the strength of a single number.
- An end to the use of single, decontextualised fiscal figures to characterise migrant care workers, who pay the Immigration Health Surcharge and visa fees while having no recourse to public funds.
- Action on the real driver these figures expose, the low pay of the care workforce, including a Fair Pay Agreement that values care work as the skilled work it is.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Interviews available:
- Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, available for TV, radio and print interviews. Karolina is a former care worker, regularly briefs MPs and government on social care workforce policy, and has been quoted in national media including BBC News, the Guardian and the Times.
- Care workers with lived experience, CWC can connect journalists with internationally recruited care workers willing to speak on the record about pay, working conditions, and the impact of settlement policy. Case studies available on request.
About The Care Workers’ Charity (CWC) The Care Workers’ Charity is the only UK charity dedicated to supporting paid care workers across the social care sector. We have provided over £6.8 million in crisis grants to over 13,800 care workers since 2020. We offer mental wellbeing support to care workers, ensuring they receive assistance during challenging times. The CWC provides accredited Mental Health First Aid training to care workers and other staff and advocates for policy changes to improve lives and working conditions in the UK. We participate in government roundtables, academic forums, and policy discussions, sharing insights from our grant applicants’ experiences. To learn more about our mission and initiatives, visit www.thecareworkerscharity.org.uk.
Registered charity no. 1207208. Registered office: Rushworth Studios, 63 Webber Street, London SE1 0QW.
Broadcast-ready clips, b-roll, photography and care worker case studies available on request.
Media contact: Shanna Wells | shanna@thecwc.org.uk | 07930 992443