Dozens of women who were stranded in the UK and gave birth there during the Covid pandemic have been saddled with expensive maternity care bills, after Home Office delays in processing their visas.
Visitors to the UK, some on temporary visas such as fiancee visas, found themselves unable to leave the country after the pandemic took hold in March 2020.
Some were already pregnant and had planned to return to their home country to give birth, but were unable to due to travel restrictions. Others became pregnant while staying in the UK for longer than expected.
The women say that a statement made on 23 March 2020 by the then immigration minister, Kevin Foster, indicated that they would not be penalised. But the Home Office says the statement was not intended to cover every eventuality.
At the time, Foster said the government recognised that travel plans had been disrupted and that it was “taking a pragmatic approach to ensure individuals are not penalised as a result of issues arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic which are beyond their control”.
However, the women say that the length of time it took the Home Office to process their visas to remain in the UK due to the travel restrictions led to them incurring charges from NHS trusts after they gave birth. This happened even though they had paid the immigration health surcharge fee to cover any NHS treatment they may need when they applied for the visas.
Ros Bragg, the director of Maternity Action, said the charity had dealt with 37 cases where women had found themselves facing maternity care bills running into tens of thousands of pounds.
Bragg said: “This policy caused enormous distress to women trapped in the UK during the pandemic and has left many with debts they will struggle to pay. We know that women have avoided maternity care out of fear of incurring large debts, putting their lives and their babies’ lives at risk.
“This is a poorly thought-through policy which has served only to exacerbate the difficulties faced by pregnant women in the pandemic. We need the government to focus on protecting the health and wellbeing of mothers and babies, rather than on short-term cost savings.”
Fang Li, a 29-year-old Taiwanese woman, came to visit her British boyfriend, Jamie Shields, in the UK in December 2019. She planned to return to Taiwan because she had secured a place in a ballot for her country’s youth mobility visa, and needed to make her application there.
However, when the pandemic started she was unable to travel home. She then discovered she was pregnant. She consulted a lawyer and was advised to apply to stay in the UK, which she did on 17 April 2020. She paid the application fee and the immigration health surcharge fee.
She received NHS antenatal care and gave birth to her daughter Jessie Li Shields on 1 January 2021. She was astounded when the NHS trust sent her an invoice for £7,919.41, which she has been contesting, so far unsuccessfully, for the past three years.
While the normal timescale for processing the kind of visa Li applied for is eight weeks – with an option to apply for a more expensive fast-track decision within 24 hours – it took the Home Office almost a year and a half to decide to accept her application. She argued that it was only because of the lengthy Home Office delay in processing the visa that she incurred any NHS charges at all.
Her solicitor, Nath Gbikpi of Leigh Day, complained in a letter to the Home Office: “We argue that Ms Li would not have incurred such debt had the Home Office followed through on the promises made during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Home Office officials replied saying that the delays were “an unfortunate consequence” of the pandemic beyond their control.
“We do not accept the exceptional measures were intended to be a catch-all for every unexpected circumstance customers found themselves in at the time,” officials wrote.
Li said: “We have been fighting this for three years and we are mentally and physically exhausted. I feel like the whole situation is out of my hands. I was shocked that the maternity care charge was so high as I had already paid the health surcharge. It feels like this policy is trying to rob normal people.”
A government spokesperson said: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, significant public health restrictions meant we could not process applications of leave to remain cases as quickly. This meant that some individuals were unable to use NHS services while their application remained under review.
“These cases were worked through in the quickest possible time and individuals can request a review of their case if they so wish.”
