No more increase in immigration health surcharge fees (IHS Fee) from the 16th of January 2024.
The 66% increase in the immigration health surcharge IHS that was announced by the government in July of last year will not be implemented on the 16th of January as initially expected due to certain reasons. In this post, we will let you know all the reasons why the IHS fee will no longer be implemented from the 16th of January and we’ll let you know the new expected dates of implementation in case full fees are adopted.
No more increase in immigration health surcharge fees (IHS Fee)
A House of Commons library researcher said that the increase in IHS fees will be debated in the House of Commons this week on Wednesday,the 10th of January 2024 meaning that the Draught Immigration Health Charge Amendment Order 2023 cannot now come into force on January 16th.
The Draught order was published in October 2023 and stated that it will come into force either on the 16th of January 2024 or the 21st day after the day on which it is made depending on which date was the later A delegated legislation committee of the House of Commons will be debating the draught order on Wednesday,the 10th of January at 4:30 p.m. This would mean that the 31st of January is now the earliest day that the increase can take effect.
The surcharge will be increased from £624 to £1035 per person per year for adults,and from £470 to £776 per person per year for Children under 18 students and their dependents and applicants for the youth mobility scheme.The Home Office published a detailed quality impact assessment on the increase in October 2023.It says that the increase is being implemented to continue to deliver the Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto commitment to ensure that the surcharge covers the full cost to the NHS of treating people required to pay it.
Lord Sharpe of Epsom, the parliamentary under secretary of state for the Home Office, stated during a House of Lords debate last month that the new IHS rate reflects the increases in healthcare expenditure and revised assumptions of migrant use of healthcare services, and it was based on more recent and representative data.
Lord Sharp said the government had undertaken robust and detailed analysis of the annual cost to the NHS of treating migrants who pay the IHS to determine the increase. The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee considered the Immigration Health Charge Amendment Order 2023 in a report published last month.
The report highlighted that the order’s explanatory memorandum provided no details as to why the surcharge was being increased at a rate well in excess of NHS spending, which has only risen by 25 per cent since the IHS was last increased.The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee examined some calculations used by the Home Office to justify increasing the surcharge by 66%.
It found that increases in the Home Office’s NHS migrant cost factor was the key reason that the IHS is now increasing much more rapidly than the NHS budget.The factor increased from 28% in 2020 to 52% in 2023. The home office said this was because of a different method of calculating migrants use of them NHS that had indicated high levels of use by IHS pairs for some areas,including community and mental health services.
The committee also found that the Home Office’s calculations had overstated the current per capita cost for NHS spending when compared to all spending, which meant the IHS was set higher than it otherwise would be, while the difference was only minor £1013 instead of £1036.The committee called the calculations unconvincing and said it was worrying that the Home Office should use such a questionable methodology and it may cast doubt on the accuracy of other underlying calculations that we have not scrutinised.
In addition,the committee said it was disappointed that the Home Office had taken so long to respond to its questions, thus delaying parliamentary scrutiny of the order.The report stated.This draught order was laid before parliament by the Home Office on the 19th of October 2023. We asked the home office two sets of questions,the second of which we sent on the 31st of October 2023.
The Home Office did not reply until the 28th of November 2023.We appreciate that the Home Office needed to consult the Department of Health and Social Care and that an intervening reshuffle may have delayed responses.Nonetheless,we are disappointed that the response time was significantly longer than we would expect and has meant that parliament’s scrutiny of the draught order has been delayed unnecessarily. We hope this information was very helpful to you.
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