The Family Migration Income Threshold: Pricing UK Workers out of a Family Life
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The family migration income threshold: Pricing UK workers out of a family life JUNE 2014 Impacts of the minimum income requirement across the UK Executive Summary This briefing considers the impacts of the £18,600 minimum income requirement for non-EEA partner migration across the regions and countries of the UK. It uses Office of National Statistics (ONS) Annual Survey of Household Earnings data from 2013, broken down by parliamentary constituency of residence, to consider the potential impacts of this immigration requirement on workers across the UK. KEY FINDINGS ARE: • The right to a family life is subject to a postcode lottery. In 2013, the current £18,600 income requirement to sponsor a non-EEA spouse level was higher than the earnings of 50% or more of all residents in employment within 74 of Great Britain’s parliamentary constituencies. • An employee from the London district of Putney is more than twice as likely to be able to meet the rules than an employee from Blackpool South. The high level of the income requirement means that the right to family life is reserved for higher earners, regardless of other compelling factors such as a different cost of living. • The income requirement generates new disadvantages for lower-earners in constituencies represented by MPs from across the political parties. 45% of the parliamentary constituencies with average earnings below £18,600 per annum were represented by Labour MPs, 39% were represented by Conservatives, and 11% by Liberal Democrats. • This briefing recommends that key changes to the family migration rules for spouses and partners are made: • The minimum income requirement for non-EEA partner applications should be reduced, at least to the level of the National Minimum Wage, in order to address the current disadvantage for workers in lower-earning parts of the UK. • The full range of income and support available to the family should be taken into consideration in non-EEA partner applications. 1. Impacts of the minimum income requirement across the UK Background On 9 July 2012, the UK government can be counted towards meeting the income introduced a new minimum income requirement. Cash savings may also be used, requirement for family migration. This rule but are subject to a multiplier and a minimum change has made it significantly more difficult savings threshold, meaning that those relying for British citizens and permanent residents on cash savings alone must hold £62,500. to sponsor a husband, wife or partner from Tighter rules regulate the use of income from outside the European Economic Area (‘non- self-employment. EEA partner’) to join them in the UK. The minimum income requirement now means that The income requirement was introduced with those wishing to sponsor a non-EEA partner the intention of preventing non-EU spouses must demonstrate that they have a gross from being a burden on the UK welfare state, In 2011, the MAC was income of £18,600 per annum. and within a wider government agenda of asked by the Government how to “ensure that the [UK] reducing the level of net migration to the sponsor can support his/ The income requirement can be met through UK. It was established following advice to her [non-EEA] spouse or civil or other partner and any a limited number of income sources, certain the Government by a group of independent dependents independently of which may be combined in order to meet economists, the Migration Advisory Committee without them becoming a the rules. In cases where the UK partner is (MAC) in 2011. burden on the State”. In response, it advised that living here and seeking to bring their non- a gross annual income of EEA partner into the country to join them, In advising the Government on the £18,600 £18,600 would be the earnings level at which only the earnings of the UK partner here can income requirement, the MAC did not a two-adult family would be counted towards meeting the minimum consider actual impacts of non-EEA partners no longer be eligible for income requirement. Their earnings must have on the welfare state. In fact, non-EEA partners income-related benefits. It also proposed that a higher been at the required level for 6 – 12 months are subject to a ‘no recourse to public funds’ income requirement – of prior to the application being made. The restriction for at least 5 years in the UK, £25,700 - gross annual income of £25,700 per prospective income of the non-EEA partner in meaning that during this period they are year would offset the the UK cannot be counted towards meeting unable to claim most benefits, tax credits or potential costs of a two-adult the income requirement, and neither can housing assistance paid by the state. Non- family generated by wider public spending. Following third party support such as accommodation EEA partners are, however, permitted to take this guidance, an £18,600 which would be provided by friends or paid employment here, and Home Office income requirement was adopted by the Government family in the UK. Certain investments and data suggests that, overall, 55% of non-EEA and came into force in July other non-employment income of the couple partners do work when they arrive in the UK1. 2012. Impacts of the income requirement across the UK since July 2012 Available evidence suggests that, since its 22%, from the 31,508 partner visas issued in introduction, a significant number of British 20122. citizens and permanent residents have been unable to meet the minimum income Emerging evidence suggests a number of likely requirement in order to sponsor a non-EEA reasons why the income requirement appears partner. Home Office immigration statistics to have had such a substantial impact on visa for October to December 2013 show that grants since its introduction. In June 2013, 24,641 non-EEA partner visas were issued a parliamentary inquiry into the impacts of in 2013. This was a decrease of 6,867, or the family migration rules by the All Party 2. Impacts of the minimum income requirement across the UK Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Migration judgment was appealed and heard in the heard that a broad range of British citizens Court of Appeal in March 2014. and permanent residents had been affected by the rules, including some individuals who Using British Labour Force Survey data in were in employment in the UK. The inquiry June 2012, the Migration Observatory at committee particularly raised concerns about Oxford University estimated that 47% of the level of the income requirement and British citizens in employment would be about the restricted range of income sources unable to meet an income requirement at permitted in order to meet it, which it found the level of £18,600 per annum 5. Analysis had impacted on ‘some British citizens and suggests that, of the 422 occupations listed permanent residents who were in full-time in the 2011 UK Earnings Index, only 301 employment within healthcare, manual and were above the £18,600 threshold 6. Earnings service occupations cross the UK.’ In addition, below £18,600 are not restricted to entry- the inquiry heard from ‘a significant number level or low-skilled jobs, but are attached of people in full-time employment at or above to a range of occupations including within the level of the National Minimum Wage… retail, security, administration. Some essential [who] reported that they would be unable to professions also attract payrates below meet the income requirement’3. £18,600, including some nursing and care work occupations, some civil service roles and In July 2013, the High Court issued a some trainee positions within medicine and judgment in the case of MM and Ors vs education. SSHD [2013], a legal challenge to the family migration income requirement. The court The £18,600 threshold is significantly higher heard evidence about the impacts of the than the wages received by a full-time worker rules, leading Justice Nicholas Blake to state on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) that the £18,600 level “effectively denies in the UK. In 2014 the hourly NMW rate young people and many thousands of low- is £6.31 for a worker aged 21 or over, wage earners in full time employment the amounting to £13,124 per annum for those ability to be joined by their non-EEA spouses working a 40-hour week7. This leaves a from abroad unless they happen to have shortfall of £5,476 for those seeking to meet wealthy relatives or to have won the lottery… the income requirement who are earning at The executive can hardly be heard to say the level of the NMW. that the minimum adult wage is a manifestly inadequate sum to provide a basic standard Reports additionally suggest that people from of living over the subsistence threshold for a a wide range of social groups, including household without dependent children”4. The women, young people, elderly people and MARGARET: CARMARTHEN WEST AND SOUTH PEMBROKESHIRE Margaret lives in the parliamentary constituency of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire in South Wales. She has worked as a legal secretary for a private solicitors firm, earning £13,500 per annum, for the past 10 years. In December 2012, Margaret married Mohammed, a Tunisian national, having met him while he was living in the UK. However, in April 2013, Mohammed’s permission to live in the UK expired and he was required to return to Tunisia. Since then, although Margaret lives with her parents and has low outgoings, she has been unable to sponsor Mohammed’s return to the UK because of the income requirement.