Family Value(s), estimated at £38,700 per annum

…the evidence is clear that strong, supportive families make for more stable communities and happier individuals.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without the love of my family, the kindness they gave me, the sacrifices they made for me, and the values they taught me…"

The Prime Minister started 2023 with this rigorous defence of the importance of family in his New Year’s Speech. As the year draws to a close, such emphasis on family seems to have been abandoned as we contemplate the latest changes to the UK Immigration Rules announced by the Home Secretary.

James Cleverly announced a five-point plan to reduce net migration. While it had been anticipated he would set out changes to some of the work based visa routes, what was not expected was a very significant change to family migration. Nestled amongst the other changes, we were told –

…we will ensure that people bring only dependants whom they can support financially, by raising the minimum income for family visas to the same threshold as the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers, which is £38,700. The minimum income requirement is currently £18,600 and has not been increased since 2012."

Hearing this, one would be forgiven for not realising the full extent of this change or that it, in fact, refers to dependants of BRITISH and SETTLED people, not of workers coming to the UK on visas themselves.

What this change means is that if you fall in love with someone who needs a visa to live in the UK as your partner (spouse, fiancé or unmarried partner), you will need to show income of at least £38,700 in order for them to qualify for a visa. It is also likely that the minimum income requirement will be even higher if you have non-British children coming to the UK too.

Critically, there are strict rules on who could earn this money and how. If the non-British, non-settled partner was applying from outside the UK for their visa, the British, settled partner must be the one to earn the money. So you could have a couple who had been married and living abroad for years where the British partner didn’t work and they wouldn’t be able to meet the financial requirement.

Since 2012, it has been true that you need to show income of £18,600 and even under that rule, in 2015, the Children’s Commissioner estimated there were at least 15,000 British children living in ‘Skype families’ where they were separated from at least one parent due to the Immigration Rules. Given that the median average annual earnings for full time employees in the UK for 2023 was £34,963, it is clear that the majority of people in the UK would not meet this new threshold which will undoubtedly mean more divided families and children growing up without one of their parents.

The £18,600 minimum income requirement was set following consultation and input from the Migration Advisory Committee to establish the level a couple would need to earn to be self-sufficient. It has been challenged in the Courts but has been upheld, largely because of the work that was done in setting the threshold in the first place. It is not clear that any such consideration has been given when setting the new rate. This is backed up by reporting that the Prime Minister was in fact warned not to raise the minimum income requirement in this way because it could be successfully challenged for being arbitrarily high as it is a lot more than needed to live in the UK without recourse to public funds.

The types of professions to fall foul of the new income requirement include nurses, junior doctors, care workers, university lecturers, new and recently qualified teachers and so the list goes on. Never mind attracting people with these skills to the UK, if they are unable to sponsor their own partners, it is entirely plausible these British citizens will take their skills and go elsewhere.

Most concerningly, the Government have suggested that the new threshold will apply to people already in the UK on a partner visa when it comes time to renew. While this is very clearly open to legal challenge, it will cause significant anxiety to families in the UK and may lead to family separation. It undermines the legal certainty people must have when planning for their lives and those of their families.

It should be said that, even before the £18,600 minimum income requirement, it had been the case that those on partner visas could not claim public funds and this remains a restriction on their visas so financial support of dependants has always been necessary.

There are so many arguments to be made against this latest change – the nominal impact on net migration (as we are not talking about large numbers using this visa route), the fact that dependants already have to be financially supported, the skilled British citizens who we may lose, the fact British ex-pats often return with their (non-British) families to care for elderly relatives here (saving the public purse caring costs). But the truth is, no matter how you feel about immigration more broadly, it is my experience that most British citizens think they have a right to live in their home country with the person they love, the person they have married and their children.

It goes back to these words from the renowned advocate for family life, Rishi Sunak:

…whatever your family looks like, it doesn’t matter as long as the common bond is love.

We shouldn’t be shy about it: We cannot not talk about the thing that is most important in most of our lives…"

It really shouldn’t matter what your family looks like or, I would add, where they come from but if it is the most important thing in our lives, why are we putting an, unaffordable for most, price tag on it?

further information

If you have any queries in relation to the above or any other immigration issue, please contact a member of the immigration team.

about the author

Katie is a Partner in the immigration team and has over 10 years' experience across a wide spectrum of UK immigration matters, with particular expertise in applications made under Tier 1 of the Points Based System and complex personal immigration matters.