Foreign health and care workers are STILL being charged £400 to use the NHS despite Boris Johnson’s pledge to remove the unfair fee for lifesavers
- Doctors Association found that the Immigration Surcharge still being paid
- Comes almost a month after Prime Minister U-turned and agreed to lift the levy
- Senior Conservatives complained it was ‘immoral’ and ‘mean-spirited’
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Foreign health and care workers are still being charged £400 to use the NHS despite Boris Johnson’s pledge to waive the fee, new research suggests today.
A survey for the Doctors Association UK found that the Immigration Surcharge was still being forced on workers risking their lives to help save lives from coronavirus.
It comes almost a month after the Prime Minister U-turned and agreed to lift the levy affecting many of those at the business end of the battle against the pandemic.
In May he declared it would be dropped after senior Conservatives complained it was ‘immoral’ and ‘mean-spirited’.
New data from the DA, reported by the Guardian, found that 158 NHS workers were still having to pay the cash, while just eight did not.
A spokeswoman for the organisation said: ‘The utter failure to follow through on this promise is an insult to our colleagues who have served this country during our time of need’.
It comes almost a month after the Prime Minister U-turned and agreed to lift the levy affecting many of those at the business end of the battle against the pandemic
Mr Johnson had initially fuelled the row by suggesting at PMQs that the policy raised £900million in essential funding for the health service.
That prompted the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) to wade in, saying that in fact the 225,000 foreign NHS staff and care workers accounted for only around £90million a year. Even Tory MPs slammed the claim, saying the true costs was a ‘fraction of the total sum’.
A No10 spokesman finally said that Mr Johnson had asked officials ‘to remove NHS and care workers from the NHS surcharge as soon as possible’.
‘As the PM said in the House of Commons, he has been thinking about this a great deal. He been a personal beneficiary of carers from abroad and understands the difficulties faced by our amazing NHS staff.
Tory MP William Wragg, chair of the Public Administration select committee, led a backlash from Mr Johnson’s own side in May before the U-turn (left). Keir Starmer said it was a ‘victory for common decency’ (right)
‘The purpose of the NHS surcharge is to benefit the NHS, help to care for the sick and save lives. NHS and care workers from abroad who are granted visas are doing this already by the fantastic contribution which they make.’
However the move was not backdated, meaning those who had already received demands would have been liable to pay.
Dr Dolin Bhagawati, from the Doctors’ Association UK, told the Guardian: ‘These workers are paying up to four times over for the NHS – through their service, taxes, this surcharge and in some tragic cases with their lives.
‘It is not too much to ask that this government does the honourable thing: stop this extortion and scrap this charge as soon as possible for NHS and care workers as well as for their dependants.’