Overseas NHS nurses in the UK are being pushed into poverty due to a rule that denies them access to welfare benefits for five years says the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
According to the RCN, many are forced to borrow money, incur credit card debt, and skip meals because they can’t make ends meet. The “no recourse to public funds” rule affects nurses on temporary visas, barring them from claiming child benefit, housing benefit, and universal credit, despite their contributions through taxes.
One nurse described the situation as “another way of saying: ‘We care less about your welfare but are interested more about what you have to offer our society.’”
RCN executive director Patricia Marquis warned, “Migrant nursing staff pushed into poverty will simply choose somewhere else to do their nursing.”
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The RCN is urging the government to abolish the rule, warning of a potential exodus of international nurses, which could worsen the NHS’s ongoing
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