Overseas nurses are one of the strong pillars to uphold NHS by making valuable contribution to patient care and services. Like all the other UK residents nurses contributes to tax and national insurance, which entitles the contributors to certain state benefits like access to health care.

 Immigration health surcharge £200 introduced in UK in 2015 to restrict  tourists and illegal immigrants accessing the NHS. But now UK government has tripled surcharge within last 14 months, considering it as a alternative source of revenue. From October 2020 immigrants have to pay hefty £624 for an adult and £470 for a child every year as immigration surcharge to access UK health system.

Ironically even-if a nurse work for NHS,  her family of four who immigrating to UK or renew visa in the UK will be forced to pay £2200 a year to get access to NHS  treatments. A nurse who work full-time in NHS only earn 19000 after their pension,tax and national insurance contribution which is only around half of earning of a average full tome worker who earn £36611 per year in UK in 2019. The hike in health surcharge will make nurses to pay around 12% of their very low national average salary, which makes nurses extremely difficult to survive in UK. 

This is against nurses right to live, so i call on the prime minister to  exempt nurses to pay immigration health surcharge to just survive in UK by paying at-least their bills and  rents. Please consider our contributions to NHS and please say no to immigration health surcharge for nurses and their dependents.