UK couples lose income threshold challenge in Supreme Court

LONDON: The UK Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the immigration rules that require minimum-income requirements for British citizens to be able to bring in their foreign spouses to the country, a move which could affect a large number of Indians.

British citizens must earn more than 18,600 pounds a year before a husband or wife from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), including countries like India, can settle in the UK. The rule had been introduced in 2012 to stop foreign spouses becoming reliant on UK taxpayers.

The minimum income threshold, which also affects people settled in the UK as refugees, rises to 22,400 pounds if the couple have a child who does not have British citizenship and then by an additional 2,400 pounds for each subsequent child.

Delivering their judgement, the seven judges said the government’s rules had the “legitimate” aim of ensuring “that the couple do not have recourse to benefits and have sufficient resources to play a full part in British life”.

They, however, did acknowledge that the rules did cause “hardship” to a lot of families and concluded that the “rules and instructions” require amendment in relation to the duty towards children and other funding sources available to the couple.

While the exact numbers affected remains unclear, some Indians are likely to be among the nationalities affected by the 18,600-pound a year earning criteria for a British national to sponsor his or her foreign spouse to live in Britain.

The Supreme Court case had been brought by a group of affected couples, including two of Pakistani-origin who were being unable to bring their spouses from Pakistan.

Abdul Majid and Shabana Javed were joined by a Lebanese refugee who cannot find suitable work in the UK despite his post-graduate qualifications and could not bring his wife and a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose wife has been barred from settling in the UK.

A UK Home Office spokesperson said: “The court has endorsed our approach in setting an income threshold for family migration that prevents burdens on the taxpayer and ensures migrant families can integrate into our communities.

“This is central to building an immigration system that works in the national interest. The current rules remain in force but we are carefully considering what the court has said in relation to exceptional cases where the income threshold has not been met, particularly where the case involves a child.”

The policy had been brought in by British Prime Minister Theresa May during her term as Home Secretary under the David Cameron led government.

“The threshold is too high and is discriminatory. British citizens who have lived and worked abroad and formed long-term relationships abroad are particularly penalised and find it very difficult to return to the UK,” the report titled ‘Family Friendly?’ had said.