MAC review of family visa financial requirements advises against further increases

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published their review of the financial requirements for family visas, specifically relating to the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR).   

On 11 April 2024, the MIR for family visas increased significantly from £18,600 to £29,000 per year. The previous government intended to increase the MIR further to £38,700 per year, as detailed in our previous article, however these plans raised serious concerns about the impact on families. As a result, Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for the Home Department, released a statement confirming that a MAC review would be commissioned to review the MIR, and that it would remain at £29,000 until the MAC review had been completed. The MAC has now completed their review and their report was published on 10 June 2025, which can be accessed here. In this article we explore their conclusions, which consider both family life and economic well-being. 

MAC comments on the impact of the MIR

The MAC noted that this review received the “highest ever” number of personal responses to their call to evidence, which pays testament to the strong feelings held in relation to family visas by applicants and organisations interested in family migration. 

The report found that the MIR has a significant negative impact on the family life of British citizens and settled individuals: 

“The MIR can have significant negative impacts on the family life of British citizens or settled residents, and their children. Applicants who met the MIR usually found that these impacts were small, although some experienced stress and temporary periods of separation while establishing eligibility. Not surprisingly, the most negative impacts fell on people who did not qualify or who were separated for long periods before qualifying—in some cases, many years. The impacts include stress and mental health problems caused by separation, as well as financial problems caused by the lack of support from the partner. The impacts on British children separated from one of their parents are particularly concerning. There is evidence of mental health problems among children, difficulty establishing meaningful parental relationships with the absent partner, and feelings of rejection. While not everyone’s experience is uniform and in some cases the impacts were milder, separations due to the MIR have the capacity to inflict severe and lasting damage on British and settled people’s families.”

Interestingly, the MAC also compared the MIR to other countries and made the following finding:

“The UK’s current MIR threshold of £29,000 is high compared to other high-income countries we reviewed. In other words, other countries tend to put more weight on family life relative to economic wellbeing.”

The report highlighted that countries including Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan do not have a set income requirement, however some countries do have other provisions such as agreements to support the partner for a period of time or evidence of being able to financially support themselves. 

In terms of the efficacy of the MIR, the review also indicated that the current system of assessing the sponsor’s income is not accurate in predicting impacts to economic wellbeing: 

“The data currently available suggest that while the correlation between sponsors’ and applicants’ income is positive (that is, a high-earning sponsor is more likely to have a high-earning partner), it appears to be quite weak. This means that sponsor income is not an accurate way to predict the impact of the partner on broader measures of economic wellbeing for the country as a whole.”

The findings of the MAC review are stark, however unsurprising, as in practice we frequently encounter families who face difficulties meeting the financial requirement. The outcome, as highlighted by the MAC review, is that families are experiencing prolonged periods of separation, leading to severe and long-lasting damage.

The MAC review also highlighted the onerous nature of the requirements:

“Some couples experience periods of separation not because they fail the MIR, but because of the practicalities of meeting it. In particular, the requirement to accrue six months of payslips separates some families even though they have a job that meets the MIR. We suggest that the government should ensure that families with children in particular are not separated purely by this administrative requirement.”

MAC recommendations on further changes to the MIR 

The MAC has not provided a specific recommendation on the MIR, and has instead set out a range of options which could result in a MIR of between £23,000 and £25,000 per year. 

The MAC indicated that a MIR based on the National Living Wage (NLW) may be the simplest solution and would not result in a significant impact on immigration or net migration.

“If the government chose the NLW threshold of £23,800 (i.e. halfway between £18,600 and £29,000) then this would raise immigration by approximately 10,000 and net migration by 8,000 – a fairly small impact.”

Other key suggestions include:

• Removing the current restriction on combining cash savings with income from self-employment to meet the MIR. 
• Encouraging the Home Office to consider ways in which the complex rules on self-employment income can be simplified (although the MAC recognises that this could be difficult in practice).
• Exploring the option of considering UK job offers for the main applicant. 
• Regularly uprating the MIR threshold, to avoid setting the threshold at a certain level and allowing this to fall gradually in real terms over time. 
• Giving applicants sufficient notice of threshold increases in order for them to plan ahead, with the suggestion of the notice being at least one year in advance of the change, given that income is considered within the last 6 to 12 months in most instances. 

The recommendation to provide adequate notice of threshold increases would be particularly beneficial in practice as many families are highly anxious about potential increases. Sufficient notice will give families time to plan, adapt and organise their finances.

Current exceptions to financial requirements

The MIR is one of the most significant obstacles families encounter when applying for a family visa, however there are some limited exceptions which may result in an application being successful even if the financial requirements are not met.

In such circumstances, the Home Office may grant an application on a discretionary basis if the applicant has a genuine and subsisting relationship with their partner and there are insurmountable obstacles to family life with that partner continuing outside the UK. Discretion can also be exercised when children are involved, and the Home Office deem that It would not be reasonable to expect the child to leave the UK taking into account their best interests as a primary consideration.

Whether the Home Office will exercise discretion will depend on the particular circumstances of the case but is certainly worth exploring if there is a concern that the financial requirements will not be met. 

Conclusion 

The prospect of a potential further increase to the MIR has been a considerable concern for families. The MAC review has brought to light the significant impact the MIR has on families and on children, in particular. 

It is promising that the MAC recommends that the MIR is lowered beyond the current MIR of £29,000. Whilst the government is not bound by the MAC’s recommendations, their findings are often of significant influence. We would therefore hope that the government, at the very least, opts not to increase the MIR further to £38,700 as per the previous government’s controversial plans. 

How we can help

If you want to find out more about the proposed immigration changes and how you might be affected, or you wish to explore whether your application may be approved on a discretionary basis, our dedicated team of immigration specialists at Irwin Mitchell are here to help.