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.

As far as I understand it, whilst ILR will be harder to get for some, (and it’s not just earnings, but also the citizenship test and B2 language requirement equivalent to A level standard), once a person gets ILR under the new scheme, it’s fast track to full citizenship 12 months later. Which is a massive thing. And if you are going to be a British citizen, then really you do have to recognise the supremacy of Parliament and their decisions on rule making.. I really think that is the most British of all values.

I and now my household have had private health care via each of my employers since I was on £22k at the start of my career. Same with my spouse since the start of theirs

Sorry that 15% is for non UK born British citizens.

The true spend on migrants (who may or may not stay in the UK) is more like 2%

And for educated people earning over 125k it’s arguably proper fast track and often very high earners have enhanced maternity packages based on earnings as well. So it isn’t discriminating against that type of woman, I would say the opposite is the case. Pretty easy to come by a full citizenship.

Has anyone figured out what OP is advocating for? That migrants should just be able to come and take from the system while other people pay for them?

It depends on what is being counted. If as another poster said it included the state pension (which you need to have contributory years) I am not sure that’s a fair comparison.

There's a difference between 'have private health insurance' and 'exclusively use private healthcare'. I've always had private health insurance through employers but that did not mean they would fund a £20,000 labour at the Portland. It meant I could claim back £50 dental costs or have my ears syringed for 'only' £100.

It is, but earning over £50k a year when taking into account maternity pay is not something most people can achieve before having kids. Being financially stable for a British citizen is different, and much more achievable.

How much is your pregnancy care and birth costing the nhs? How much is your child going to cost in health care and education?

My colleague had a knee replacement at St Johns Private hospital in London, oddly my dental cover isn't amazing but I'm named on my partner's Bupa which covers everything!

It won't help if (and I hope you don't) have a difficult to treat cancer or are in a RTA. It really won't, these policies do not cover 'everything'. In the case of the latter, you will be transported to A&E at the nearest NHS hospital or if its really bad and you have eg a brain injury, the nearest specialist centre. There are no private emergency facilities, let alone specialised ones.

Some women are unfortunate enough that it takes them many months or longer to recover from childbirth. Shared parental leave can result in more work for the woman in certain circumstances (having to pump, etc.). It's not a straight swap.

I do get that ultimately you just have to grit your teeth and do whatever you need to do to get by (such as massively curtailing mat leave) but I also sympathise with people who are forced to make less than ideal choices.

If the OP used the quote button as much as she’s used AI, this thread would’ve been much easier to follow.

The whole point of the 3 out of 5 rules is that you are able to have at least one maternity period without it impacting your application to stay.

And £50k is a fairly normal professional salary. The “top 15%” is based on PAYE so doesn’t include anyone whose income is from a company they own. I know plenty of trades who earn more than that, for example, but they wouldn’t count in the stats.

This is why those such as OP with private medical insurance cannot say they do not cost the NHS anything.
Private providers depend on access to public staff and resources very heavily, and even if this were a very lucrative arrangement for the NHS (which it is not), it would not alter the fact that the practical effect on NHS staff and patients is a badly diminished service.

Yes

You are assuming that every immigrant should have the right to settle and stay indefinitely in their chosen country and be treated like a citizen. if you choose to live in a country where you are not a citizen you do have less rights - because you are not a citizen. You are still privileged to be able to choose and live there; that in itself is not an automatic right (saying this as an immigrant myself).

To the poster who was saying get rid of all people who already have ILR, what happens if they had children with a Brit? Those kids are British. So what, you're going to deport one parent and leave the kid with the other one? Or make the kid travel between countries and have an occasional video call? Or are we deporting the Brits too who committed the offense of breeding with a foreigner. Lord almighty

Exactly this. Even if you are lucky enough to never need it the NHS is there for you if the worst happens and it isn't just magically set up at that crucial moment.

She doesn't think they're British. She doesn't even think non white people born here are British.

Agreed. Was also an immigrant to the UK, although I am no longer there.

Oh ok. That's just wrong :D

Yeah this is true. Eventually I plan to retire elsewhere. I will never be a citizen, have to pay for all health care and report my whereabouts every 3 months. And prove i have enough money to support myself

I'm well aware if I want to live there i must follow the rules. Don't see why everyone should be able to come here and do and take what they want

I believe anyone with a child is a net recipient unless they’re a higher rate taxpayer or above.
So I suppose they’re trying to keep out people who cost the taxpayer more than they contribute.

For EU citizens this is true after Brexit. It made it a smaller world for British people especially. Brexit was voted for mostly people whose world was already small and this is how they wanted the world to look.