Understanding Category B for ILR(M) Financial Requirement

I'm trying to understand how Category B works.

If my wife was due to apply for ILR in July and relied on my salary income of £100,000 to meet her minimum requirement of £18,600, normally I would provide 6 months payslips and that would be enough.

But what happens if I'm employed for Jan-Apr and then made redundant and unemployed until the application date in July.

In this kind of scenario, is there a way you can combine both cash savings and the salary employment?

Or do they only look at past 12 months payslips? If so would I be providing payslips from April back to June previous year (I.e. 10 payslips from past 12 months) or am I misunderstanding how it works.

Would be nice if someone can run through some examples so I can understand it, there are all sorts of permutations this kind of situation, e.g. I could get a new employer in June back on similar salary but having missing months.

You must be employed in your current job on the date of application for any of your income to be counted at all. If you remain unemployed, then no income from any employment can be counted at all (or combined with any other category)

Under the category B, you then need to satisfy the requirements in two parts, on the date of application:

1) Your annualised income from your current job should be above the threshold (£18,600+)
So all salary earned in your most recent job divided by the period in which it was earned, multiplied by 12 must be above (£18,600+)

AND

2) In the last 12 months, you have earned in total, at least the minimum salary needed (£18,600+). So this is total income earned in the least 12 months from all the jobs combined

Alternatively, you may rely on cash saving or even combine it with your income over the last 6 months. The official guide has all the details

Guide: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... rement.pdf

zimba wrote: ↑

Wed May 14, 2025 3:51 am

You must be employed in your current job on the date of application for any of your income to be counted at all. If you remain unemployed, then no income from any employment can be counted at all (or combined with any other category)

Under the category B, you then need to satisfy the requirements in two parts, on the date of application:

1) Your annualised income from your current job should be above the threshold (£18,600+)
So all salary earned in your most recent job divided by the period in which it was earned, multiplied by 12 must be above (£18,600+)

AND

2) In the last 12 months, you have earned in total, at least the minimum salary needed (£18,600+). So this is total income earned in the least 12 months from all the jobs combined

Alternatively, you may rely on cash saving or even combine it with your income over the last 6 months. The official guide has all the details

Guide: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... rement.pdf

Thanks for explaining that in super clear terms, I now understand it much better. So basically need to have a job at time of application OR £16k + £18.6k cash savings (other categories don't apply to me). If the job earnings fall short than can combine with cash savings if possible.