GOVERNMENT 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.
Instead, the Government has confirmed plans to increase the threshold to £29,000 in the spring.
Home Secretary James Cleverly (below) had announced the increase from £18,600 to £38,700 as part of a package of measures to curb legal migration.
But the move attracted criticism as it threatened to tear families apart, with many having their future 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.
The minister said that the current threshold of £18,600 allows 75% 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% of the working population.
Lord Sharpe said: “In spring 2024, we will raise the threshold to £29,000, that is the twenty-fifth percentile of earnings for jobs which are eligible for Skilled Worker visas, moving to the fourtieth percentile (currently £34,500) and finally the fiftieth percentile (currently £38,700 and the level at which the general skilled worker threshold is set) in the final stage of implementation.”
The minister said the threshold would be “increased in incremental stages to give predictability”.
However, no date for when the threshold would rise beyond £29,000 was given in Lord Sharpe’s answer, nor did one appear in Home Office papers published on Thursday detailing the plans.
The Prime Minister previously told MPs the Government was looking at “transitional arrangements” for changes to the thresholds to make sure they are “fair”.
In a factsheet detailing its plans, the Home Office confirmed that changes to the family visa scheme would only apply to new applicants.
Anyone granted a fiancee visa before the minimum income threshold is raised will also be assessed against the £18,600 requirement when they apply for a family visa, rather than new threshold.
The Home Secretary suggested the plans would still reduce net legal migration by 300,000 people a year.
Cleverly said: “Today, I have provided further detail about how these measures will be applied and when they will be introduced.
“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.”
Home Office minister Tom Pursglove (below) is expected to write to MPs on Friday explaining the Government’s plans.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the change was “more evidence of Tory government chaos on immigration and the economy”.
Cooper (below) added: “On their watch, net migration has trebled as skills shortages have got worse and worse – and they still have no proper plan to link the immigration system to training or workforce planning.
“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.”
