London, 26 January. A UK poll on Thursday revealed that an indefinite stay visa to stay in the UK is considered too expensive for most UK healthcare workers, affecting foreigners, many of whom plan to leave for this reason.
The study was carried out by the Petitions Committee in the House of Commons with the aim of informing MPs of this matter, who will discuss it next Monday and analyze the proposals of professionals in the sector.
Of the 6,991 responses, 98% supported reducing the cost of visas for health workers, which currently stands at £2,389 (€2,718) and is at their own expense.
In this sense, 100% of those who declared their intention to apply for an indefinite visa to remain in the UK (ILR) also considered that it should be made cheaper.
91% of the total consider it fair to reduce it to 243 pounds (276 euros), compared to 6% who still consider it expensive and 3% who consider it too cheap.
In this context, 63% of the total confirmed that they work in the British health system and intend to apply for an indefinite visa, while 11% indicated that they have already obtained it.
However, the report warned that “some foreign health workers” said they planned to leave the country due to the high cost of ILR.
Of those, 71% confirmed they had no intention of applying for an indefinite visa to stay in the UK, where the average annual salary for a nurse, for example, is between £33,000 and £35,000 (€37,549 and €39,825), according to estimates. from the Royal College of Nursing.
“I am a single mother and my two children were recently with me in the UK. I cannot afford the ILR for myself and my two children. With the nurses’ salary and living costs, a single mother cannot,” an expert explained in the Petitions Committee report.
One of its members, Labor MP Tonya Antoniazi, will open the debate next Monday, but already today it was announced that the results of the survey are “terrible”.
The parliamentarian added: “Many NHS workers are not the only ones on low wages and those who have come to the UK to work for the NHS face high costs of applying for indefinite stay.” statment.
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