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The Government has abandoned plans to hike the earning threshold Britons need to bring foreign family members to the UK.
Home Secretary James Cleverly told the Commons earlier this month that the threshold for a family visa would rise from £18,600 to £38,700 by ‘next spring’ in a bid to cut migrant numbers.
But documents released by the Home Office state that the earning threshold Britons need to bring foreign family members will now only increase to £29,000 in the spring – while no timeline is set out for when the higher threshold of £38,700 will be introduced.
Cleverley’s initial 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.
Home Secretary James Cleverly told the Commons earlier this month that the threshold for a family visa would rise from £18,600 to £38,700 by ‘next spring’
The minister said that the current threshold of £18,600 allows 75 per cent 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 per cent of the working population.
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.’
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 a Home Office paper 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’.
The Liberal Democrats suggested the planned £38,700 threshold was ‘unworkable’.
The party’s home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael added: ‘This was yet another half-thought through idea to placate the hardliners on their own back benches.
‘James Cleverly needs to put down the spade and stop digging. Decisions like this should be made by experts and politicians working together.
‘He should also publish the advice from the Treasury and OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) about the impact that his package of changes will have on the economy.’
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