The petition of residents of the constituency of Bradford East,
Declares that everyone deserves the right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights and therefore the minimum income threshold for partner/family visas should be withdrawn.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to take a compassionate approach to partner/family visas, withdraw the previous Government’s changes to the minimum income threshold, and ensure that any future threshold be accessible and no higher than the National Living Wage.
And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Imran Hussain, Official Report, 5 March 2025; Vol. 763, c. 399.]
[P003049]
Observations from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Seema Malhotra):
British citizens and those settled in the UK are free to enter into a genuine relationship with whomever they choose. If they wish to establish their family life in the UK, it is appropriate they should do so on the basis they can support themselves financially without recourse to public funds.
The family immigration rules, including the minimum income requirement, need to balance respect for family life with ensuring the economic wellbeing of the UK is maintained. To help ensure we reach the right balance and have a solid evidence base for any change, the Government commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee in September to review the financial requirements in the family immigration rules.
Conducting a full review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system. There will be no changes to the current threshold of £29,000, until the MAC review is complete. The MAC is an independent body and any review it undertakes will be robust and transparent. The review, which was commissioned in September 2024, will take approximately nine months.
The MAC has already completed a call for evidence, which closed on 11 December, to gather the views of stakeholders and those affected by changes to the family rules. More than 2,000 people responded—a record for a MAC consultation.
The minimum income requirement is one of the “core” requirements of the family immigration rules. The rules contain provisions to ensure the Government meet our obligations under article 8 of the European convention on human rights even when the “core” requirements are not met. Where there are exceptional circumstances which would render refusal a breach of article 8 of the ECHR because it would result in unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant or their family, a person can still be granted permission. Where this is the case, an applicant will be placed on a 10-year route to settlement instead of the standard five-year route.