TUC urges Burnham to rewrite UK migration reforms over social-care and workplace risks

Trade unions challenge the settlement plan

The head of Britain’s Trades Union Congress has urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to overhaul planned migration reforms, arguing that longer waits for permanent status could damage public services and leave migrant workers more exposed to exploitation. Paul Nowak’s intervention, published by the Guardian on September 10, places organised labour against important elements of the government’s earned-settlement programme. The proposals would normally double the qualifying period for permanent settlement from five to 10 years, with different timelines depending on earnings, occupation, public-service work and compliance with immigration rules.

Social care is the immediate fault line

Nowak focused particularly on workers who arrived through health and social-care routes. Earlier government proposals contemplated a 15-year baseline for some lower-paid workers and their dependants who arrived between 2022 and 2024. The TUC argues that prolonged insecurity could worsen retention in an already fragile sector and give unscrupulous employers greater leverage over staff whose future status depends on remaining in qualifying work. The union leader also warned that policies perceived as treating migrants unfairly could intensify social division rather than rebuild public confidence.

Official data show a sharp recruitment reversal

Home Office figures for the year ending June 2026 show why the care sector is central to the dispute. The number of Health and Care Worker visas issued to people in caring personal-service occupations fell by more than 99% from the December 2023 peak, after overseas recruitment of care workers ended in July 2025. Across all work routes, 235,000 visas including dependants were granted in the latest year, down 18% year on year. Worker-category grants were 76% below their December 2023 peak, driven by falls in both care and skilled-worker visas.

The government’s fairness argument

Ministers say permanent residence should reflect contribution, integration and compliance rather than follow automatically after a fixed period. The government has proposed faster settlement for some doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs and high earners, alongside longer routes for lower-paid workers, people relying on benefits and those who breached immigration rules. A higher English-language standard is also scheduled. The latest official statistics recorded 200,000 settlement grants in the year ending June 2026, 24% more than a year earlier, while work-related extensions remained elevated because many visas issued during 2022 and 2023 were expiring.

What Burnham must decide

The intervention turns the next design stage into a political test for the prime minister. Burnham can retain the differentiated settlement model, create broader transitional protection for people already in Britain, or shorten the route for sectors facing severe staffing pressure. Any revision will need to reconcile workforce planning, legal predictability and the government’s commitment to reduce migration. Watch for the response from Downing Street, the final treatment of migrants who arrived under previous rules and whether ministers publish a sector-by-sector assessment of effects on social care. Those details will determine whether the dispute remains rhetorical or produces a material policy change.