LABOUR has accused the government of breaking promises to care workers as new legislation to be debated in the Commons today seeks to increase the immigration health surcharge rather than scrap it.

In May, the government pledged to remove the surcharge for health and care workers who apply to live and work in Britain.

But they are currently still required to pay the annual charge of at least £400 each, including dependents, to be reimbursed later. 

The legislation includes the provision to increase the annual surcharge from £400 to £624 per person in October. Care workers earn on average just £19,104 a year. 

The majority of care workers would also be completely excluded from any exemptions under the proposed new health-and-care visa. 

The surcharge was originally introduced by the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition in 2015 as part of their “hostile environment” penalising foreign-born workers.

Shadow immigration minister Holly Lynch said: “This amounts to a shameful broken promise by the government to health and care workers who have given so much at the front line of the Covid crisis.

“The reality is that ministers have been happy to clap for carers but are now charging them exorbitant fees to use the NHS system that depends on them.

“It’s completely unacceptable to level up-front charges on low-paid care workers that can amount to thousands of pounds for a family.

“The government is effectively borrowing money from families without ever saying when they will get it back. This will be impossible for many to pay.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Prime Minister Boris Johnson in May that a care worker on minimum wage would have to work 70 hours a week to afford the fee.

The day after his comments, the government made a U-turn and stated that “work by officials is now under way on how to implement the change.”

In June, Mr Johnson told him that “NHS or care workers who have paid the surcharge since May 21 will be refunded.”