Government Rows Back on £38,000 Family Visa Earning Threshold Hike

Home Secretary James Cleverly during an event at Lancaster House in London on Nov. 30, 2023. (Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)

The government has rowed back on plans to raise the minimum income needed to bring foreign family members to live in the UK.

On Thursday, the government confirmed they will increase the threshold to £29,000 in the spring, instead of £38,700.

The threshold will now be “increased in incremental stages to give predictability.”

Home Secretary James Cleverly had announced in early December the increase from £18,600 to £38,700 as part of a package of measures to curb legal migration.

This was part of plans to curb immigration abuse, net migration as well as restricting dependants of students.

Record Figures

The UK’s population has grown by the equivalent of a Birmingham-sized city in the past two years, figures show. Office for National Statistics said a record of 745,000 more people moved to the UK than those who moved away last year. It was revised up from a previous estimate of 606,000.

Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom confirmed the change of plans on Thursday.

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, 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.”

No date for when the threshold would rise beyond £29,000.

Even with the changes, Mr. Cleverly said that he still believes that the government will be able to hit its immigration reduction targets.

“Today, I have provided further detail about how these measures will be applied and when they will be introduced,” he said.

“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,” he added.

In a letter to MPs on Thursday, Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said the changes would be introduced in a “stepped fashion throughout early 2024.”

He said: “We believe that this strikes the right balance between the immediate need to start reducing net migration and giving those affected adequate time to prepare for upcoming changes.”

‘Undermines Our Efforts’

The move angered the more conservative factions of the Tory Party.

Jonathan Gullis, a Conservative former minister, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “This decision is deeply disappointing and undermines our efforts.”

European Research Group deputy chairman David Jones told the PA news agency: “The latest net migration figures very starkly showed the extent of the crisis we face. Increasing the threshold was absolutely necessary to address that crisis.

“The government should have stuck to its guns. Yesterday’s decision was a regrettable sign of weakness, made worse by the fact that Parliament was not sitting and therefore was unable to interrogate ministers on the reasons for the decision.”

Red Lists

In a fact sheet on the subject, released on Thursday, the government said that those coming on the Health and Social Care Visa route will be “exempt from the £38,700 salary threshold applied to skilled workers, so that we can continue to bring the health care workers that our care sector and NHS need.”

This month, data showed that there were “concerning trends” in the number of people joining the UK register from countries where active recruitment isn’t permitted.

Figures from the Nursing and Midwifery Council found that over 24,000 people from low-income “red list” countries have joined the nursing register in half a year.

The Code of Practice for International Recruitment states that some developing countries such as Congo, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea, and many more should not be targeted when actively recruiting health or care professionals.

This means all active international recruitment from these countries will need to stop with immediate effect as they risk destabilising those nations.