By Isaan Khan and Tom Kelly and Kate Pickles
22:37 03 Mar 2024, updated 01:51 04 Mar 2024
- Watchdog warned there had been ‘widespread abuse’ of the system since 2022
Vulnerable care residents are being looked after by unqualified migrants as rogue operators exploit Home Office loopholes, a Mail investigation shows.
Scant checks in the desperate bid to fill huge vacancies mean untrained and overworked staff, sometimes barely able to speak English, are left caring for the elderly in the under-strain sector.
Our probe into the ‘cash for care jobs scandal’ found some outfits charge overseas applicants ‘work finder fees’ of up to £20,000 to help them get a visa allowing them to come – and stay – here.
One ‘adviser’, a Baptist minister, told an undercover reporter that for £9,000 he could help her arrange a job in just three days – with ‘100 per cent’ success guaranteed.
A watchdog warned there had been ‘widespread abuse’ of the system since early 2022 after ministers relaxed immigration rules to plug mass job vacancies.
Vacancies in adult social care hit a record 164,000 in 2021/22, prompting the Government to lower the barrier for such staff to be allowed to work in the UK.
The change meant the total number of foreign workers given permission to come to Britain rocketed to a record high last year, figures revealed last week – driven by a 349 per cent rise in care worker visas to more than 89,000. The largest numbers come from India, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
Alongside the ‘unprecedented’ surge of overseas workers into the sector, the relaxation of rules also saw an ‘explosion’ in shady characters making a fortune, treating migrant care staff as ‘cash cows’ by making them pay often huge fees, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority said.
Campaigners called for the Home Office to urgently introduce more checks on foreign workers to stop their exploitation and protect those they care for.
The Mail can also reveal:
- Whistleblowers at one firm providing care services for the NHS described seeing applicants arrive with holdalls stuffed with cash to pay for jobs, which were handed over to staff in clandestine meetings.
- An agency charging £5,000 to help African and Asian workers get care jobs described how it deceived the Home Office to help obtain visas to travel to the UK.
- Some overseas staff are treated like ‘slaves’ in the UK but are too scared to complain for fear of losing their jobs.
It is illegal for British-based companies operating as employment agencies to request, or receive, a fee from workers for the purpose of finding them jobs in the UK, although companies can offer other non-work-finding services and a fee can be charged.
Yet shifty fixers charge overseas staff in return for Home Office-approved Certificates of Sponsorships, which enable them to obtain a Health and Care work visa to secure work for a UK company.
Several whistleblowers told the Mail some staff are illegally charging for jobs at one social care company with 20 sites in northern England that provide supported living for people with learning difficulties for NHS and council referrals.
They described seeing migrants arrive with holdalls full of cash which were handed to staff at the company at meetings in car parks or areas in CCTV blackspots. They estimated more than 100 migrants had been brought in this way.
But when they arrive they usually have no qualifications for the required work and often very poor English, putting patients’ health at risk. In many cases the migrants ‘disappear’ and are believed to end up trying to find work illegally on the UK black market.
One migrant described how he paid £6,000 cash for a Certificate of Sponsorship at a meeting at one of the company’s offices in the north-west of England, but never received sponsorship.
Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association, said she knew of extensive abuse of the system since visa rules were relaxed. ‘We’re seeing agencies sprouting up that are just bringing people in for the purpose of taking money off them,’ she said.
‘They’re not checking their skills or making sure they have the relevant training. In some cases workers are sleeping 14 to a room and having to pay back money they hadn’t expected.
‘We have to stop a practice where vulnerable people are looking after vulnerable people. It’s exploitation with terrible consequences for the social care industry and the people that we, as a society, are supposed to be caring for.’
She said the Home Office needed to strengthen English language requirements and spend more time on follow-up visits to homes using foreign care workers.
Martin Plimmer, lead investigator at the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, said more than 100,000 sponsorship visas had been issued in the two years since rules were relaxed. ‘This country has never recruited so many people in such a short space of time in one industry’, he said.
‘As an authority, we’ve gone from virtually never having investigated a case in the care sector to getting a case of suspected exploitation every day. We’re inundated.’ Migrants are routinely being illegally charged £10,000 to £20,000 ‘work finder’ fees, he said.
It means they often arrive in debt having sold everything or borrowed from gangs to pay for the job, so cannot afford to report mistreatment to UK authorities for fear of being sacked.
Some are forced to work 80-hour weeks, leaving them exhausted and making it hard to do their job properly.
In a ‘vicious circle’, the exploitative employers are also better placed to bid for lucrative social care contracts from local authorities because their low wage bills mean they can undercut rivals who treat workers properly, Mr Plimmer added.
‘Some care homes are being run at a very low cost with a very high income. It’s all about making money, and some people are making substantial amounts of money,’ he said.
Former Tory health minister Neil O’Brien said: ‘This Daily Mail investigation highlights the absurdity of this sponsorship scheme and whole immigration system.
‘This scheme is not fit for purpose. This raises massive questions for the Home Office and I am sure they will want to take rapid and decisive action on this.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We strongly condemn offering Health and Care worker visa holders employment under false pretences and do not tolerate illegal activity in the labour market.
‘We’ve already taken action to revoke the licence of sponsors engaged in such activity.
‘We are committed to stamping out exploitation of those working in the care sector and have announced providers in England will only be able to sponsor migrant workers if they are undertaking activities regulated by the Care Quality Commission.’
Baptist minister: Hand me £9,000 and I’ll help you to get care home job
By Tom Kelly and Isaan Khan
His mission, he proclaims, is to establish God’s kingdom on earth. In his impassioned sermons at the packed Pentecost Baptist Church in Liverpool, Dr Rev Philip Oyewale routinely calls for his flock to praise and honour their salvation Jesus.
Dressed in a bright tailored suit with a gold watch, he declares ‘Hallelujah, praise the Lord’, prompting worshippers to respond in unison.
But when our undercover reporter arrived to see Mr Oyewale at his church, it was used for a less spiritual purpose.
Sitting in his vestry, a university graduation photo behind him, he offered to charge a Nigerian undercover reporter £9,000 to help her obtain Home Office sponsorship for a job in a UK care home.
Our investigation came after learning that his company, Charis Recruits, had been suspended from the Home Office migrant sponsorship scheme in February last year because it was suspected of ‘supplying sponsored workers as labour’.
It was said to have sponsored 376 migrants from July 2022 to February 2023 in an operation suspected of making over £1million.
Despite this, whistleblowers told the Mail, Mr Oyewale was still offering to help migrants get sponsorship.
And when the undercover reporter posing as a overseas student looking for full-time work approached the minister, he told her he could help her get a Certificate of Sponsorship – required for a work visa – in just three days.
He said that after the payment he would introduce her to someone who would help her and promised a ‘100 per cent’ success rate and said there would be no problems with the Home Office.
‘There’s nothing to worry about. I can assure you of that.’ Pointing at himself, he added: ‘That’s the assurance I personally can give you.’
The work would be domiciliary care – supporting a disabled or elderly person in their own home – in Newcastle or Middlesbrough, he said.
The only question he asked about suitability for the job was if our applicant had a car.
He declined to say what the wage would be, simply saying: ‘You will be paid. We have more than enough hours. You will work until you say you are tired.’
He refused to say how many people he had previously helped. He said once the £9,000 had been paid, he would ‘introduce’ her to the person with the job.
Mr Oyewale, 47, is a registered minister with the Baptist Union which represents Baptist churches in England and Wales. He has several social media sites with thousands of followers where he posts videos promoting church events.
Charis Recruits said it would investigate the Mail’s allegations, but said because Mr Oyewale had resigned as a director of the company three months after its Home Office licence was revoked, he was ‘no longer able to make decisions’ for the firm.
The company declined to answer subsequent questions about why Mr Oyewale’s mobile number remained on the contacts section of the company website and why the email Charis Recruits sent to the Mail listed Philip Oyewale as the company’s ‘registered manager’ at the bottom.
Mr Oyewale told the Mail he only gave advice to those who needed help getting sponsorship and never benefited financially. The undercover reporter did not pay the £9,000 for which he asked.
He added: ‘Any advice I gave, even prior to my resignation from Charis Recruits Ltd, was solely intended to help them advance and be able to earn a respectable livelihood while lawfully remaining in the UK.’
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
