Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced an increase in the visa fees and health surcharges paid by immigrants. The purpose of this fee increase is to raise the pay of employees in the public sector. With the announcement of the increase, the British prime minister also demanded an end to the nationwide doctors’ strike.
The public sector will see a 5–7% increase, according to UK PM Sunak. This would include public sector employees such as teachers, police, junior doctors, and others. Sunak promised public sector employees a raise, but he also said that the money for it would have to come from somewhere else. Sunak emphasized that the increase will not be offset by increased public borrowing, which would increase the already high rate of inflation.
Sunak said at a press conference at Downing Street, “If we’re going to prioritize paying public sector workers more, that money has to come from somewhere else because I’m not prepared to put people’s taxes up and I don’t think it would be responsible or right to borrow more because that would just make inflation worse.”
Sunak stated that in order to raise the pay for the public sector, the cost will be deducted from immigrants entering the country.
The first is that we will raise the fees that immigrants must pay when they apply for visas to this nation as well as the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which is a fee they must pay to use the NHS, according to Sunak.
Despite the fact that some who are moving to the UK may object to the fee increase, Sunak emphasized that it is “entirely right” given that costs have increased since the last fee increase and that there have been no recent fee increases.
Over £1 billion is anticipated to be generated through fee and surcharge increases, which will be used to pay salaries. Second, according to the prime minister, the administration will “reprioritise.” No job losses
The specific increases and the types of visas to which they have been applied will be made public by the UK Home Office in the upcoming months.
Sunak’s move to raise the through fees and surcharge follows junior physicians in the UK going on a five-day strike, the longest NHS or UK strike ever after their demands for a 35 percent pay increase were denied.
