To the Home Office Minister,
Madam,
I am livid.
I am a New Zealand woman, fast approaching my 60th birthday and I have been working in United Kingdom for over five years and this morning I hear on the television news you value my services in a ''downwards'' scale - my ''low skills'' services are not required anymore.

How will my MS client feel when I go in and tell him I will not be allowed to renew my work permit as I am lowly skilled, and the government does not want me here?

Minister, please advise me why you value the EU carers over me.. I can speak the English language to high levels, I have been a reporter for 25 years so have a good command of the English language. I can write in our daily care book to most acceptable levels of handwriting, some of your EU privileged have not been able to write the simplest of sentences for our most necessary recording procedure.


I can speak clearly and succinctly to my MS young man who is completely paralysed, blind, incontinent and cannot move anything properly except his head. He cannot speak clearly and all in all it is fair to say he does need SPECIALIST CARE.

I am being honest with you here Minister - I am SPECIALISED, I do not have a formal degree but with many years St John Ambulance training in First Aid and Home Nursing, decades of looking after my late husband who died at 62 years old of early-onset Alzheimers Disease and generally a long-term at the University of Life - I am not ''in the lower skills'' grade you have declared us mature carers from outside the EU are!!

I am livid Mr or Mrs or Ms Minister.
My current work permit runs out in December 2011 and if I want to beg you for Indefinite Leave to Remain I have to do the following: Pay either GBP750 if I send in a request or GBP900 if I take time off work and travel to Croydon to present myself and all the things you need for me to grovel to be allowed to stay and to work, to pay taxes and to contribute to the economy. You will know I have to present your officers with birth certificates of myself, my father and grandfather who was born in Deptford, London... as well I will be presenting three months original bank statements, your several page application form as well as my UK Quiz results (which I will pay GBP35 for and have to take a day off work to sit) I will have to be sure to make application within 2-weeks of sitting this exam. If I post it you will want to hold my passport for 40 days which restricts when I can sit the exam and get things off to you.

You will of course know that your EU preferred carers will just show a passport as they fly, bus, train in and walk into work and not have to do anything else.

Minister I invite you to look up my records to see that I paid around GBP400 to get my original Ancestry Work Permit and before it ran out after four years I took a week off work, travelled to Croydon and went through an arduous application/renewal procedure costing me over GBP1000 to get a five year Residence Permit which runs out in December 2011. If I want Indefinite Leave to Remain (which I do) I now face all the procedure mentioned in this communication to you and a further GBP750 or GBP900 plus costs involved in making my application.

Minister I am livid ....as mentioned earlier, the EU people come in for hardly any cost and form filling etc etc!!!

May I remind you Minister that New Zealand men and woman answered the call from the Motherland when she called on her British Commonwealth citizens for support ....30,000 died and thousands of others maimed in two world wars which they fought for Britain! We are still members of the British Commonwealth and the Queen is our Queen.

Some of these EU people who walk into England to work, and send child benefits home to places all over Europe, are from countries that people from Britain and my Kiwi elders were at war with ----dying and fighting against.

I have worked for over five years in Britain, I have been the Live-In-Carer for 20 clients and every one of them and their families have been so pleased to have me live-in and give top-quality care at all times. The anger I feel right now has forced me to give up humility as I tell you I AM A HIGHLY SKILLED AND HIGHLY sought-after live-in-carer. After nearly five years I have left working for the agency and am now privately, self-employed working with a young man who is definitely in need of a highly-skilled, competent and committed carer - I am that person and wish to remain so for many years.

Minister - I am livid.
My young man has had a huge variety of carers from all over the world - he has had so many disappointments that he has decided to only have me working to look after him.
I am privately, self-employed - I love my work and tell you I look after him the best he could get in the world. I am from New Zealand and I am a valued and contributing member of the community I work and live in - near Manchester.

Minister - I am aware that Britain has an migrant worker problem but may I respectfully suggest that you are hitting the wrong area. Live-in care agencies and care-homes are short of carers and it seems the low wage does not attract English people to the industry. What are the clients/patients going to do if there are not enough people working in the industry?

Why hit New Zealand and Australian mature people? They bring a load of skills and life experiences to share with the elderly and infirmed.....they speak English, they know how to work hard and have a strong desire to contribute to all aspects of life.... you are making a huge mistake.

I am livid that EU people are valued and I am not.
Minister - I expect a reply from you.
Minister - I expect you to re-assess your decision.

I remain, committed to caring to my Professional, Highly Skilled and dedicated standards.
I remain, yours faithfully (if not disillusioned),
........................... (Me)!