Draft Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2017

Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts

Tuesday 31st January 2017 General Committees

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

I very much welcome the order. I would like to raise one question with the Minister that arises out of the health surcharge: what if somebody who comes in on a work visa, and has had the surcharge paid, has a condition that changes during their stay here? What if, when they come to re-apply for the visa, their employer wants them to stay—or, if they are self-employed, they want to stay and work—but they have some kind of muscular complaint that worsens and is likely to produce more of a burden on the NHS? It is clear to me that the surcharge is a one-off, and that they would not be refused an extension or a repeat of their visa—on the assumption that they were going to continue to work here—even though their health condition had worsened. I would like assurance on that matter.

I ask because a constituent of mine, who works in another country in the Commonwealth, was refused an extension of their visa, though they were able to continue working in that place. The only grounds on which they were refused was that their health condition had deteriorated. I would not like somebody who is able to work, and wants to continue to work, whether they are self-employed or have an employer who wants them to continue to work, to be refused a renewal of their visa when their health condition worsened because that would place an additional burden on the NHS. We understand that this health surcharge is, as it were, an insurance premium or a kind of contribution made, and that it covers their condition, whatever it is.