Proposed ILR Rules – The Unfair Impact on Working Mothers and the Need for a Full Maternity Exemption

[Zinary]

I am writing this with a newborn in my arms, and my heart is completely breaking.
Instead of being allowed to heal, rest, and soak in the pure joy of my baby, I am sitting here crying, terrified, and questioning if I made the right choice to have a child. How can a mother be driven to question her greatest gift, her absolute world, all because of a cruel change to immigration law?
On 2 November, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the finalized "Earned Settlement" rules. To get Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the standard 5 years, you now must earn over £50,271 a year.
But the absolute malice is in the fine print: you must meet that £50,271 threshold in three out of the last five years before you apply.
The Home Office is actively spinning this "3 out of 5 years" rule as a generous maternity "buffer." They are telling the public it gives women two years of leeway to have a baby.
Let me tell you why that math is a blatant, calculated lie for real women:

1. The Starting Trap: Many of us spent our first two years in the UK working up from entry-level salaries, earning below that £50k mark. Our two "buffer years" are ALREADY GONE. We have zero margin for error left.
2. The Maternity Penalty: Pregnancy is nine months of physical toll, followed by maternity leave and statutory pay dips. If your annual P60 earnings drop below £50,271 because you lose out on bonuses, commission, or overtime while caring for your baby, your year doesn't count. The clock resets.
3. The Multi-Child Ban: If you want to have two children within five years, it is mathematically impossible to hit that threshold for three consecutive years.

If the math fails you because you chose to have a baby, you are forced onto the 10-year path. The punishment? Paying thousands of pounds more in upfront Immigration Health Surcharges (IHS) and visa extensions just to keep your home. For a family, we are talking about an extra £35,000+ extracted by the Home Office. This is evil. It is a pay-to-settle hierarchy that penalizes the female body and treats human lives like a spreadsheet. The right to live and build a family must NEVER be a hard choice. The Home Office is laying these rules before Parliament next month (December) to take effect in 2027. We have a tiny, critical window to fight this. I am calling on every mother, every ally, and anyone who believes that a woman shouldn't be penalized for having a child to help us.

• If you are an immigration lawyer: How do we launch a class-action challenge against this under the Equality Act?
• If you have links to journalists or MPs: Please help us get this cruel math into the mainstream media. Backbench Labour MPs forced a U-turn on care workers last week—we can force a U-turn on mothers if we make enough noise.
• If you are a British citizen: Will you write to your MP on behalf of your migrant friends and colleagues who have no voice in the ballot box?

Please bump this, share this, and tell me what we can do. I refuse to let a spreadsheet dictate whether it was a "mistake" to hold my beautiful baby.

Unfortunately, not all women are lucky and can plan exactly when they will have a baby. Some take years to get pregnant. I already have my 3 dc, but would never advise someone to wait until 35 if they know they want kids and have a stable relationship/partner to do so. I have seen many friends wait and then struggle and take years to get pregnant (and a couple not able to get pregnant at all).

And yet asylum seekers don't have to prove anything. Make it make sense!

OP, you moved to a country which is on its knees. We may appear to be a rich industrialised nation but a UN report in 2018 likened the UK to a third world country. https://www.weforum.org/stories/geographies-in-depth/the-un-went-to-one-of-the-worlds-richest-countries-to-report-on-poverty-this-is-what-it-found
Since that report we've had COVID and we are still paying to untangle ourselves from the EU. Councils are desperately short of money and the NHS waiting lists are shocking. Salaries are not rising as fast as supermarket food, rent is rocketing and few young people can access the property market. Environmentally, things aren't much better. We're one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, we're losing countryside to housing at an alarming rate and where I live the reservoirs are 15% full. Every single individual puts a bit more pressure on this broken country.
So it's perfectly reasonable for the government to do what it can to protect its existing population. Even I - liberal in my thinking and welcoming to immigrants - see that the government has to do something.
And I'm afraid that when your argument refers to pregnancy as a human right, I roll my eyes. Any thinking woman plans a pregnancy carefully to ensure that finances are in place. Anything less is nonsensical.

Your child’s education and healthcare costs money. You are making out that you are fully self funding your existence - that statement only rings true if you aren’t then expecting your child to be supported.

Is your partner fully funding your maternity leave from his earnings (ie no benefits)?

And you want exemptions so that people can continue having children without having to consider the financial implications? Wow. People born in this country don’t have that so why do you feel it’s your right?

The racists are winning in the UK sadly

I’m English. I couldn’t and didn’t have children, until we could afford them. Even then, it was a struggle at times.

It was your choice to have your children.

There is no human right that says you can have as many children as you like and expect another country to fully fund it all. 🤷‍♀️

I sympathise with you as this is clearly having an impact on your life, but 36k isn't a massive wage. I limited my family size to one child based on what I can afford. That's just reality. I think it would be fairer in your case if your husbands income was also taken into account, it would also be fairer to only apply the incoming rules to new immigrants. I think the sentiment on here has turned against you because of the hyperbole used in your posts.

They have to prove they are refugees

I’m contemplating moving to the UAE in next few months with my toddler.. I would never even dream of asking their national people to support me if I wanted maternity or even ask them to change their laws to prioritise me getting leave to remain or have access to their free services.

I read your post and genuinely thought what a selfish idiot 🤷🏾‍♀️

Gotta love all this complaining about how much migrants are "costing" the country.

We haven't had to pay for their education and health costs. They're paying massive visa fees and surcharges as well as tax and NI.

I really doubt that any migrant costs the UK the same as someone born here.

In the UK you can share the leave. It doesn’t have to be the mother. The mother can take first few months to recover from birth then second parent can take the rest if you choose. Can you do that so it impacts you and your partner equally?

There are lots of women/ couples in Britain who wait 5+ years longer to start their families these days as the economy and cost of living is savage out there in 2026.

Birth rate in 2025 was only 1.39.

But all of us have choices taken away from us because of family set up, because of the upbringing we had, for example my mum died when I was 30 and my dad's useless. I don't have the option of grandparent childcare. My eldest has significant additional needs so my childcare options are limited and I have a career I've worked hard for so don't want to leave to be a full time carer.

We're all balancing things when we decide when to have children or how many to have, if you're physically capable and want to crack on and have 10 kids you can, but the decision to have a child comes with financial and organisational reponsibilities you have to juggle when making that choice.

I don't understand why the consideration of living in a different country and the legalities around that aren't just another thing to weigh up?

Key word being “option”.

I agree with everything you've said here however I just don't think this law in particular is the impediment to having children that op states it is, at least not anymore than the hardships manay face when deciding to have a baby or more than 1 baby.

I do think Mahmood should have relaxed rules for those who are young (let’s say under 30) vs those who are older as there surely is an economic argument there too. So young people willing to have children etc are a good thing economically speaking?
I don’t think pulling the human rights and women’s rights cards is going to work anymore. I think the arguments to be put forward have to be economic as lots of countries around the world have had a post pandemic immigrant surge and a pissed off population voting in the right wing. That is really not unique to the UK whatsoever.

Are you suporting a system that tell me women to hold on for five years before having kids? Where is your humanity?

Having children is a big decision which economic circumstances plays a part in for everyone. Yes, people wait until they can afford it.

OP, you've used AI to write this, and the result is you're coming over so entitled, you're proving all the people who think immigrants are only here for what they can get right. Don't do that. Seriously, this thread will only strengthen support for the change.

I'm sympathetic. The goalposts have been moved. It disproportionately affects women. It sucks. You're not sponging off the system, you pay taxes and NHS surcharge and you're hoping for permanent residency so you presumably plan to be a taxpayer for many years. I hope things work out for you.

I have one. Do you pay rent or a mortgage because you claim to pay both?

@Miaaaaaow you’ve slagged the NHS off many times, but you also insist you’ve never used it… curious!

I sympathise with your position but the AI slop OP is hard to get past.

You are left with a clear choice as every family is...

Stay home on maternity leave and bear the financial and organisation bring of that (we all sacrifice, there's discrimination everywhere with new mums, I had to move jobs altogether when I realized how family unfriendly my employer was and manga re in a much worse boat on much less income than me) or go back to work and miss out on the time with your child.

We ALL have to juggle these decisions, many of us have husbands who have to take on a second job to make ends meet, we make unpalatable work move decisions to fit around young children.

Can you please explain why you think this 1 element you need to consider is significantly worse than another mother, say her husband leaves her high and dry a month after birth, how is your decision to return to work or not worse than hers?

I support what the OP is saying, our immigration laws are already draconian to those trying to use the legal route. For example to have to pay upfront before you even get the visa for your nhs levy, then have to pay again through your taxes is harsh and incredibly expensive. Why can’t you pay extra monthly through the tax system, or pay once you start working, or even pay when you actually use the NHS. The government did this with the self employed payment during covid - despite working and paying tax for the previous 20 years I received less support than someone who hadn’t had maternity leave.

Very few women can afford to take the "full maternity leave" which the OP states they plan to take. Its a luxury position largely enjoyed by the higher paid.

Ok, I know I’m being a pedant but it’s “bear” a child, not “bare” a child. I keep seeing this mistake and it’s driving me crazy.
Anyway, back on topic - you still haven’t answered my question OP. Why did you want to come to the UK?

It’s not racist to think the immigration rules should stay the same whether you choose to have a baby during your first 3 years in the country or not.
Having an exemption to the migration requirements because a woman decided to have a baby is ridiculous.