Petition to sign over high minimum income requirement

[pce950]

A petition has been set up online by a soldiers father who is correctly calling the income requirement being too high. Here is tthe link below to sign. More signatures the better. Almost everyone agrees that £18600 is too high.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/118268

[Casa]

The Government originally had intentions to set the minimum income level higher than £18,600. The concern is that we regularly have members posting on the forum asking how they can now claim Public funds as they are struggling to support their family on the £18,600 income without access to them. In some parts of the UK where the cost of living and wages are lower, £18,600 may well be too high. In London or other parts of the South East, £18,600 may hardly cover all outgoings.

[Wanderer]

I've always said £18,600 was too low to support the importation of a foreign spouse in the vast majority of cases. It's an expensive business as it is without factoring in flight, relocation and visa costs.

I think the old method of disposable income was better but even that bar was set too low.

[secret.simon]

Almost everyone agrees that £18600 is too high.

Almost everybody on this forum, maybe. But not across the country.

Indeed, Casa and Wanderer have laid out cogent arguments why it may be too low.

Given that the purpose of the petition is to lead to a debate in the House of Commons, I will sign the petition. But that does not necessarily mean that I agree with the premise that the spousal threshold is too high.

[Casa]

I do agree with Wanderer that the disposable income calculation was generally fairer.

[cyborg001]

Well it's purely subjective. 18.6k is still much lesser than the average UK salary and peanuts in London/South East!

On one side you can say it's not fair that the "rich" have the freedom to do whatever but then again the risks to the taxpayer must be mitigated.

That said, the EEA/SS migration route makes this entire thing a farce.

[Casa]

Well it's purely subjective. 18.6k is still much lesser than the average UK salary and peanuts in London/South East!

On one side you can say it's not fair that the "rich" have the freedom to do whatever but then again the risks to the taxpayer must be mitigated.

That said, the EEA/SS migration route makes this entire thing a farce.

The issue would be that British nationals have the equivalent rights when residing in other EU member states.