The minimum salary level needed to bring a foreign partner to the UK should not be raised to £38,700 as it would breach international law, the Government’s migration advisers have said.
The last Conservative government put up the minimum income requirement – the amount that Britons or foreign residents of the UK need to earn in order to sponsor a family visa – from £18,600 to £29,000 last year.
The level was then due to rise to £34,000 later in 2024, and to £38,700 this spring, but those planned increases were placed on hold when Labour entered power, pending a review by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).
Their review on Tuesday has recommended that the threshold should not rise to £38,700, which would put it in line with the skilled worker visa thresholds, as it would “most likely” breach the right to family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The MAC also suggested that the threshold could be lowered if Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wants to achieve her goal of balancing economic wellbeing with the right to family life.
It has set out a range of options ranging between £19,000 and £28,000, with most clustering around £23,000 to £25,000.
While MAC has not recommended a particular option as the future direction of the policy is a political decision, the report is likely to be seized upon by Labour MPs, who have demanded the salary threshold is cut to make it easier to bring in spouses and other relatives from overseas.
The advisers highlighted the “temporary stress” experienced by families who meet the threshold during the application process, while those who fail to qualify, sometimes for years, can experience “serious harm”, including emotional and psychological strain due to family separation, disruption to parent-child relationships, financial hardship, and long-term mental health effects on children and adults.
The report also recommends keeping the threshold the same across the UK, but may calculate a level based on data that excludes London in order to ensure it is not unfair on people living outside the capital.
The advisers also reject having a higher threshold for families with children as this would have too much impact on family life.
Changing the thresholds in line with the report would only have a “very small” effect on increasing net migration to the UK, most likely between 1-3 per cent and under 10,000 people in the long run, the MAC said.
Professor Brian Bell, MAC chair, said: “We were asked to advise on setting a minimum income requirement for the family migration route in a way that balances economic wellbeing with the right to family life.
“This report does so by outlining several approaches the Government could take, along with the strengths and weaknesses of each.
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“While the decision on where to set the threshold is ultimately a political one, we have provided evidence on the impacts of financial requirements on families and economic wellbeing, and highlight the key considerations the government should take into account in reaching its decision.”
In January, The i Paper reported that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was unlikely to reduce the visa fee, but was undecided about whether to raise it.
At a Commons debate then, multiple Labour MPs urged the Government not to go ahead with the mooted increase, and to cut the current level to make it easier to bring in spouses and other relatives from overseas.
Irene Campbell, MP for North Ayrshire & Arran, described the requirement as an “anti-family policy”, which is more strict than in other countries, saying it was “unrealistic” for most people to earn enough to sponsor a visa.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This report proves what we’ve always said: that raising the salary threshold drives numbers down. So Labour must urgently re-instate the Conservative plan to further increase the salary threshold to £38,000.
“As Kemi [Badenoch] and I said on Friday, if the ECHR stops us from setting our own visa rules – from deporting foreign criminals or from putting Britain’s interests first – then we should leave the ECHR.”
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