Home Office rows back on plans to hike family visa salary threshold to £38,700 | Politics News

The Home Office has rowed back on plans to increase the salary threshold for Britons wishing to bring a family member to the UK following a backlash.

Home Secretary James Cleverly told the Commons earlier this month that the threshold for a family visa would rise from £18,600 to £38,700 by “next spring” in a bid to reduce the number of people coming to the UK.

But documents released by the Home Office state that the earning threshold Britons need to bring foreign family members will now only increase to £29,000 in the spring – while no timeline is set out for when the higher threshold of £38,700 will be introduced.

Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom confirmed the change in answer to a written parliamentary question on Thursday.

Lord Sharpe said the current threshold of £18,600 allows 75% of the UK working population to bring their foreign family members to join them but that increasing the threshold to £38,700 would reduce that figure to 30% of the working population.

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The minister said: “In spring 2024, we will raise the threshold to £29,000, that is the 25th percentile of earnings for jobs which are eligible for skilled worker visas, moving to the 40th percentile (currently £34,500) and finally the 50th percentile (currently £38,700 and the level at which the general skilled worker threshold is set) in the final stage of implementation.”

He said the minimum income requirement would be increased in “incremental stages to give predictability” and that in spring 2024, it would be raised to £29,000.

No date for when the threshold would rise beyond £29,000 was given in Lord Sharpe’s answer.

Mr Cleverly said following the update that he still believed the government’s plans would reduce net migration by 300,000 people a year.

“I have been clear that current levels of migration to the UK are far too high,” he said.

“The British people are, rightly, frustrated and want to see action.

“This plan will deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration, with around 300,000 fewer people coming to the UK compared to last year, delivering on our promise to bring the numbers down.”

But Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “You have to wonder who is in charge at the Home Office, or if anyone is.

“It was clear to everyone else that the raising of the earnings threshold was unworkable.

“This was yet another half thought through idea to placate the hardliners on their own back benches.

“James Cleverly needs to put down the spade and stop digging. Decisions like this should be made by experts and politicians working together.”

Mr Cleverly unveiled the salary change as part of a five-point plan to reduce legal migration after net migration hit a record-breaking 745,000 last year.

Other measures announced in the plan include a ban on care workers bringing over their families and raising the minimum salary for a skilled worker visa from £26,200 to £38,700.

Leading immigration researchers at The Migration Observatory at Oxford University warned the new family visa rules could leave British citizens with a foreign partner facing greater restrictions on who they can live with than migrant workers.

It said the plan to hoke the family visa salary threshold to £38,700 could mean that “in some circumstances, British workers would face more restrictive rules on family than migrant workers in the same job”.

“For example, health professionals in the NHS who come to the UK on skilled work visas would be able to bring their non-UK citizen partners with them,” it said.

“A new restriction on dependants applies to care and senior workers, but not to other health jobs.

“However, the majority of British nurses working in the NHS earn less than £38,700 per year and so would not have the same rights.”

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During Prime Minister’s Questions last week, Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms warned that the marriage plans of “thousands of couples” had been “dashed” by Mr Cleverly’s announcement.

Rishi Sunak said the UK held a “long-standing principle that anyone bringing dependants to the UK must be able to support them financially”.

“We should not expect this to be at the taxpayer’s expense and the threshold hasn’t been raised in over a decade, it is right that we have now brought it in line with the median salary,” he said.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the climbdown was “more evidence of Tory government chaos on immigration and the economy”.

“They failed to consult anyone on their new proposals and took no account of the impact of steep spousal visa changes on families next year, so it’s no surprise they are now rowing back in a rush.”