UK govt takes steps towards the biggest-ever cut in migration

The United Kingdom is bringing some major changes to its immigration policies. According to the UK Home Office, the British government is delivering on its plan for the biggest-ever cut in migration by raising the skilled worker visa salary threshold by 48 per cent and abolishing the Shortage Occupation List and 20 per cent salary discount.

In a slew of measures, the government laid orders in the Parliament to scrap the 20 per cent salary discount offered for shortage occupations and to increase the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers to ₤38,700.

“We have acted to stop British workers being undercut,” said the UK Home Office.


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The significant changes made to the Skilled Worker route include significant expansion of supplementary employment permission and increase to the general salary thresholds for the various tradeable points options, and the addition of tradeable points options to cover individuals under transitional arrangements.

The Shortage Occupation List (SOL) will be replaced with the Immigration Salary List including not having a 20% going rate discount for occupations on the ISL and will be effective from April 4, this year.

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Net migration hit a record last year, and with an election expected later in the year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is coming under increasing pressure from the right wing of his party to bring it down, reported Bloomberg.

Immigration is expected to add 6.1 million people to the UK population by mid-2036. The UK's population will grow from 67 million in mid-2021 to 73.7 million in mid-2036, driven almost entirely by migration, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) forecast earlier.

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Sunak's government recently implemented new visa rules that restrict overseas care workers, including Indians, from bringing dependant family members to the UK. This decision aims to address what the Home Office has described as a "disproportionate" situation where 120,000 dependants accompanied 100,000 workers on the care visa route last year.