Paying extra to employ 'foreign' workers

I haven't heard about this Anya and can't find it on Google. Can you tell me where you heard about/saw this?

It was all over the news last night as part of the Tory election manifesto.

Thanks Anya. Google brought lots of sites up once I put in Conservative manifesto.

It doesn't make it clear how this will work but it appears that there is already a charge for employing foreign workers because the manifesto talks about increasing the existing charge.

Sorry VQ I forgot to state the obvious about the Tory manifesto ???

Yes VQ you are right this is already in existence for employers wishing to bring skilled workers in from outside Europe. It tends to apply to skill shortages for example engineers, programmers, doctors etc. there is a kind of sponsorship scheme attached to it and a great deal of responsibility too. The conservatives are planning on increasing this.

So how is the NHS going to manage?

This has been in existence for a long time WW it's not new.

Yes but - how is the NHS going to manage, it is as we know already in
Deep doo-doo. The latest figures are being held back until after the election because they are so bad. So where's the extra money coming from.

So exactly when was this levy put in place Gilly because it's news to me, and presumably costs of employing doctors, nurses etc from non EU countries will now double

Hang on! THIS would suggest it's not been going on for a long time

Or am I missing something?

Quote from above link

"The government has today (24 March 2016) confirmed that it is pressing ahead with plans to reduce Britain’s reliance on migrant workers and upskill British workers through a new skills charge.

The Immigration Skills Charge, set to be introduced in April 2017, will be levied on employers that employ migrants in skilled areas. Set at £1,000 per employee per year, and a reduced rate of £364 for small or charitable organisations, it is designed to cut down on the number of businesses taking on migrant workers and incentivise training British staff to fill those jobs"

It's the employment visa you pay for (unless they already have one which many people who have studied in the country can have) know because I have done it.

This has always been in existence (well as long as I can remember) and is designed to ensure skilled UK workers get first bite of the cherry. It was never expected that we would suffer from such huge skills shortages as we do.

I'm taking about the charge levied on employers not an employment visa. This was apparently just introduced last month.

And is now going to be doubled.

I must admit to little understanding of why the government would want to do this. If we are going to have a system where only those we need come into the country then ... we need them. Why would you disincentivise them?

We certainly need more money going into education and training (which I understand is where the Cons say it will go) but doing it this way seems counter-intuitive to me. Part of training/learning is always working with someone, in a formal way or simply as part of career progression, who knows what you are trying to learn.

I have emailed Australia and asked my son what they do as I know many held the Aussie system up as an example of how to do these things (although many Australian's would not agree) so hopefully - if he is awake - when I come back later I may have a comparison we can look at.

Well let's look on the bright side! Maybe employers will be forced to consider British workers, who knows, even those over 50! Even those of us born in the 1950’s ("WASPI women") who have suffered the double whammy of also being denied our pensions until we're over 65! No, some of us don't appear on the unemployment records, and as someone who has been there, I more than suspect because it's made such an unpleasant and humiliating experience, probably deliberately. (Yes I retrained but it made not a scrap of difference.) You have to apply for jobs that employers don't want to give you and that you know you have no chance of getting, there’s no level playing field when they can employ a younger person more cheaply than you, and even if you do voluntary work, you still have to fill in a form, so the JSA office can snoop into almost every aspect of your life. It's like Big Brother, and I don't mean the reality TV programme. British people happy on benefits? £73 a week to run your home, pay the bills and eat? Don't make me laugh. I can't entirely rid myself either of the idea that this kind of situation contributed to the Referendum result last year.

The Torys would like to do it because it speaks directly to the UKIP voters they've just picked up. It's another cynical swipe at small businesses.
The bit about the Tory manifesto that really p's me off is the paying-for-care-after-death bit - so now the maximum any normal person can leave their children with any degree of certainty is the £100k capped amount. How far does that go, split between a couple of kids, as a house deposit? Not very far at all.

If you have a defined skill that's in short supply then you ought find work Womble

As it is merely in the manifesto it might never come in. Things they promised the last two times didn't get implemented and things they didn't tell us about, very serious ones, did. Also things they said would not happen did. And they could exempt the NHS or government agencies.

There's a thread about that very topic moxeyns active on GN at the moment.

Of course it will be implemented

It will bring in revenue ....it's not like the 'promises' made to just make you vote...duh! '

I think it is about time they started putting British workers at the front of the queue. Also what about stopping companies only advertising jobs in the EU countries and not in UK? We came across a waitress who told us their boss trained them in Geurnsey and when they were ready they were shipped over to UK to work in the hotels. The jobs were only advertised over there and not here. The same applies for fruit pickers.

Not everything designed to bring in revenue works. It may well not be implemented. I can see that if a firm brings in its own staff from abroad, that a contribution ought to be paid towards their NHS needs, they only have to get appendicits and the money has been spent.

Private insurance would be the answer I suppose.

I am dismayed at yet another appalling manifesto are they being sponsored this time round to come up wth the worst ideas? It is like the Eurovision Song contest, rubbish and yodelling.