No match: Why funding rematching hubs for displaced migrant care workers is not enough to tackle exploitation

Since the establishment of the Health and Care worker visa and its extension to the adult social care sector in 2022, reports of migrant care workers suffering exploitation, scams and abuse have mushroomed. 

In response to growing pressure from charities like ours, as well as from the media and MPs, the government responded - not by reforming the restrictive visa as many had called for, but by establishing 15 ‘International Recruitment Partnerships’ (or hubs) in England, to support exploited migrant care workers to find new sponsors in the adult social care sector. They had their work cut out for them. By December last year, more than 470 care agencies had their sponsorship licences revoked, affecting at least 39,000 workers. 

As the government’s only worker-facing response to the growing crisis or workers exploited or abandoned by their sponsors, thousands of people had their hopes pinned on these hubs to help them rebuild their lives. This research sought to find out whether this was an effective method of supporting victims of exploitation, and what else might be needed.

A series of Freedom of Information requests sent by our researchers to the Home Office revealed that just 941 (3.4%) of migrant care workers invited to use the hubs set up by the government reported finding a new sponsor. Added to this, the researchers conducted an online survey of 162 migrant care workers on the Health and Care Worker visa route, alongside in-depth interviews with workers, care sector providers and administrators from seven hubs.

We found that the overwhelming majority of exploited migrant workers referred to the government’s rematching hubs were unable to move into new sponsored care roles, as employers bemoaned high Home Office fees and rigid visa rules, and workers struggled to cover the costs of new visa fees and driving licences.

Visa inflexibility

The inflexible structure of the Health and Care Worker visa was found to be at odds with the needs of the care sector, which is increasingly shifting towards a domiciliary model that requires care workers to travel to clients’ own homes, and often relies on zero-hours contracts. 

Though visa requirements mean that employers must guarantee full-time hours of work to the individuals they sponsor, more than half (51%) of direct care roles were in domiciliary care, and one third (34%) of workers in domiciliary care contexts are on zero-hours contracts. In this environment, sponsoring workers on the Health and Care Worker visa was simply not suitable for many of the vacancies care agencies were recruiting for. 

High costs for employers and for workers

Care sector providers described the rising costs of sponsorship as simply unaffordable in an environment of funding cuts and depleted budgets. Analysis of Home Office fees found that, as of July 2025, a small employer must pay £1,867 more to hire a migrant care worker for three years, than to hire a worker who doesn’t require a visa. This will further rise to £2,540, when the government implements its intention to raise the Immigration Skills Charge as laid out in the immigration white paper.

While three of the seven hubs interviewed offered financial support with these costs to employers, others left it to care agencies themselves to find the cash. There is also undoubtedly an element of absurdity here, whereby a Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) program is spending thousands of pounds to subsidise Home Office visa fees that could simply be waived. 

Already in debt or having suffered wage theft from their former sponsor, workers too, struggled with the costs imposed by the Home Office on renewing their visa. The fee of £304 - £590 per applicant, depending on visa duration, was too steep for some workers, who were pushed further into debt or were simply unable to pay. 

The lack of a driving licence or car was found to be a further barrier to workers struggling with money, as many employers required this to deliver care in domiciliary settings.

Lack of awareness and engagement 

Many workers did not contact their hubs, primarily due to a lack of awareness, but also lack of clarity about the hubs’ remit. Our Freedom of Information request revealed that the regional hubs received just 16,698 requests for support, far fewer than the 27,611 care workers signposted by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). 

Recommendations

This research finds that despite the best efforts of regional hub administrators, this project has so far failed in its primary objective. Admittedly, this study is not representative of all 15 regional hubs. An official, government-commissioned evaluation is expected in 2026. 

However, given the urgency of the situation thousands of migrant care workers have found themselves in, and the lack of any other work-facing support, this report provides much-needed insight into the diverse approaches adopted by the hubs, the significant barriers to rematching, and the need to rethink the approach to tackling migrant worker exploitation.

To enable exploited migrant care workers to rebuild their lives, and ease the pressure on the adult social care sector, which continues to grapple with vacancies at triple the national average, stakeholders interviewed in this project overwhelmingly called on the government to reform the work migration system. This is desperately needed to give workers and care providers more flexibility in employment, without the cost and compliance pressures of employer- sponsored visas.

Many workers also highlighted the injustice that the employers who exploited them continue to operate, with little more than the slap on the wrist of a sponsor licence revocation. This research calls for significant penalities to be imposed upon rule-breaking sponsors, alongside strengthened avenues for workers to raise grievances and access their employment rights.