Ministers have rowed back on plans to hike the earning threshold Britons need to bring foreign family members to live in the UK to £38,700. The Government has instead confirmed plans to increase the threshold to £29,000 in the spring.
Home Secretary James Cleverly had announced the increase from £18,600 to £38,700 as part of a package of measures to curb legal migration.
The move was criticised by some who said it threatened to tear families apart, with many saying their future was thrown into doubt as the Government considered the details of the policy.
Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom confirmed the change of plans in answer to a written parliamentary question on Thursday (December 21).
The minister said the current threshold of £18,600 allows 75 percent of the UK working population to bring their foreign family members into the country to live.
He added that increasing the threshold to £38,700 would limit the same right to 30 percent of the working population.
Lord Sharpe 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.”
He said this would move 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) at the final stage of the policy’s implementation.
The minister said the threshold would be “increased in incremental stages to give predictability”.
No date for when the threshold would rise beyond £29,000 was given in Lord Sharpe’s answer, nor did one appear in a Home Office paper published on Thursday which details the plans.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak previously told MPs the Government was looking at “transitional arrangements” for changes to the thresholds to make sure they are “fair”.
The announcement comes after a Government adviser said raising the income threshold for family visas would have a minimal impact on immigration numbers.
Professor Brian Bell said the rule changes will not be a “major player in reducing net migration”.
The Office for National Statistics recently revised its net migration figure – the difference between the number of people arriving in the country and leaving – to put 2022 at a record of 745,000.
Officials believe measures aimed at students will reduce migration levels by around 140,000, changes to social care workers’ visas by 100,000, while the original proposal for a family visa threshold alteration would have brought a 50,000 reduction.
Professor Bell told reporters last week that the number of visas in question was “not that big” and was “dwarfed” by student and skilled worker visas, adding: “So I don’t think in the overall package it will be a major player in reducing net migration.”
On today’s visa annoucement, 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.”
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This is more evidence of Tory government chaos on immigration and the economy.”
