Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is steering the United Kingdom to raise over a billion Pounds from Migrants traveling to the country under various visa categories. This is in effort to increase government revenue as it struggles with proposal to increase pay out to UK workers in multiple areas.
This new plan was announced on 13th July by the Prime Minister, who explained that the planed fee increases are in effort to raise fund for public spendings by the UK government.
Particularly, the expected new funds will be raised from migrants through increase in visa fees, as well as the NHS access fee, called the health surcharge.
Reason for New Visa Fee Increases
This was made abundantly clear by Mr Sunak in a speech he intended to address his government approach to resolving the strikes in the UK public sector due to agitation for wage increases.
These agitations have resulted to multiple strike actions by multiple worker’s union, some of which are still in the works. The Prime Minister in his effort to placate the workers announced 6.5 per cent pay rise for teachers, 6 per cent for junior doctors and 7 percent salary increment for police and prison officers. while the armed forces gets 5 per cent rise.
Funding problem immediately became the consequence of these planned salary increase. Rishi Sunak, therefore, confirmed that part of the funding for this new wages and other UK public sector spendings will be sourced from foreigners who are coming into the UK.
How Foreigners will Bear the Burden
These foreigners who are targeted to bear this burden, in particular are those who wish to live and work in the UK. It is not exactly clear at the time of reporting the extent of the effect on temporary visitors who are coming to the UK with tourist visa.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said: “What we have done are two things to find this money; the first is we’re going to increase the charges that we have for migrants who are coming to this country when they apply for visas.
“And indeed, something called the immigration health surcharge, which is the levy that they pay to access the NHS.
“So, all of these fees are going to go up and that will raise over a billion pounds.”
Currently, migrants in this targeted category must pay the NHS health surcharge fee, which is currently fixed at £624 for adults, and £470 for minors and students. This amount started in 2020, but before then the fee had previous been increased severally since its introduction in 2015. From £200 it doubled to £400 in December 2018.
New Upcoming Fees
It is not exactly clear for now when the planned fee increases will commence. However, the government have already made very clear what the new increase will be for each of the visa categories.
For instance, there will be 15 per cent increase to the UK work visa fees, while the fees for all other visa categories will be increased by a minimum of 20 per cent. Meaning that tourist visa for instance may even cost more than the 20 per cent.
Regarding the mandatory NHS health surcharge, which allows migrants to access NHS services, the new fee for immigrants will be a hefty sum of £1,035 per adult visa applicant. This payment will not be one off but will be a repeated cycle every year per person.
For minors such as children and students or those whom government considers qualified for discount, the new health surcharge will be £776.
Surely, the last have not been heard about this, but one sure thing is that the UK government is seeking to raise fund for public spending. In this effort, international migrants are under their radar. For current fees, please see government offical website.
