Agency care staff 'charged £10k for free work visas'

Overseas workers hired to look after elderly and vulnerable people claim to have faced threats, exploitation and a "climate of fear" at a care home company.

Employees at Lotus Care, which runs 10 care homes across north-west England, said they were often forced to work double shifts because of staff shortages, were denied sick leave, were underpaid and threatened with deportation if they complained.

They also alleged they were charged thousands of pounds for free work visas by a Merseyside agency that helped to arrange the jobs.

Lotus Care denied malpractice allegations and said its recruitment processes "adhere strictly to industry standards and the legal requirements" of the sector.

The firm said it was "committed to upholding the highest ethical standards" and "unaware" of any visa fees being paid by migrant workers, saying it paid the Home Office for the relevant paperwork itself.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the care at five of the company's facilities "inadequate" or "requires improvement" in recent years.

In 2022 at Cressington Court in Liverpool, the CQC found a resident had not been bathed for four weeks and another had lost six stone in six months.

And last year, in what was its sixth inspection in a row, the CQC found "overwhelming failures" at Finch Manor, also in Liverpool.

The firm previously said it was working to address the issues raised by the CQC and improvements had been recorded by inspectors at two homes in the last 12 months.

However, a male migrant worker, who spoke to the BBC as part of its eight-month investigation, said he remained concerned.

"There's constant pressure and there's a climate of fear because management use the threat of cancelling visas and deporting staff to silence any complaints," he said.

A female migrant added that she "can't stand the mental stress".

"They put more and more work on us," she said. "If anyone is calling in sick, we have to do double shifts. It's too much – it's like torture."

A second female migrant worker told the BBC her friend had been ill and she had been "shouted at and threatened, she was told she needed to go to work".

The BBC has seen messages from a WhatsApp group set up by Lotus Care's management to communicate with dozens of overseas staff.

In several messages, the migrants are told their licence to work, also known as a certificate of sponsorship (CoS), will be "revoked".