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.

Iit seems wrong to penalise people following the legal route and working. It’s people (young men mainly) gaining entry illegally and claiming false asylum we should worry about. They cost much more, don’t work legally .

How do you know it’s false?

First of all that’s a lot of AI

but on a serious note, I'm an immigrant and have zero sympathy for you. When I had my youngest I went back to work when he was 6 months old. I did not expect any help from the government I CHOSE to have this baby.

i also never came to the UK thinking it was the “British dream”. I came as a professional.

If OP is taking a year off she is by definition not working.
She came here, worked for less than 2 years, on a fairly low to average wage, had a baby and is now not working. Even if she then returns to work after the year she will be taking childcare subsidies from the system, her child will be using the health service and will then be a tax payer cost from 4 at school.
I really don’t see how she’s massively contributing beyond someone claiming asylum.
I’m sure you would be outraged if someone came here, asylum application still pending, just as OP’s status was still pending, and then pretty swiftly started popping out babies while talking about their “human right” to have back to back babies.

Absolute poppycock.
Those I knew that voted for Brexit did so because we wanted to maintain our sovereignty (both internal and external) and not have a bunch of oiks in Brussels telling what to do and how to run our country.
It didn't materialize completely because too many of our politicians had their snouts in the EU trough.

Completely agree. Why do successive governments turn the UK into a spineless doormat that lets anyone walk all over it? This is totally against the will of most British people who are sick of this entitled attitude.

Crazy. A total insult to the native population of this country.

Mahmood needs to push through these changes ASAP because people have had enough.

The OP says she has private healthcare so doesn't use the NHS. But what about emergency services, ambulances, fire service etc etc?

Why does it bother you exactly that I live here and don’t think particularly highly of the NHS or how the country is run in general? Because a British person never lived in a country where they did not feel like their country was superior? That’s quite funny historically if you think about it 🤣

You sound xenophobic tbh. Which country in the UK do you live in?

Why? What have I said which is xenophobic?

I asked a question first.

Clever you. I have already said where I live so you can read the thread. Interesting that you can call me xenophobic without reading my posts too.

But you are clearly unhappy and dissatisfied and putting up with it because of your partner. why choose to live in such a hellhole and then have a go at people who are suggesting that you can take or or leave it?

We don’t know what utopia you moved from but it is a shame your partner wouldn’t make a sacrifice for you and move to a superior country.

I am so sorry for the personal impact on you OP, but we had to crack down because there are too many non-British people who now have citizenship and it is completely changing our country and costing a fortune in eg state pension payments to people who haven’t paid in for 40 years like the rest of us.

Citizenship is not a right and not something you should be able to buy.

We have belatedly woken up to the fact that there are some valuable things about our culture and country that are worth preserving.

If politicians had legislated sensibly 50 years ago we wouldn’t be in this situation.

Where are you from and why don’t you want to be a citizen of that country?

Why is my life bothering you so much? Have I said it’s a hell hole? No I haven’t. Go back and read my posts if so invested.

Not particularly invested - just amused and curious as to why anyone who is apparently intelligent enough to earn so highly is forcing themselves to live here, won’t answer direct questions and why their partner won’t sacrifice themselves to live in paradise.

Seems like you are determined just to wind people up for the hell of it. Still, I suppose everyone needs a hobby 🤣🤣

No you havent. You said you love London, not where you live. England then?

No you are just determined to take my posts out of context. Lots of people move to live in other countries for a myriad of reasons and not always because they love it there. If that puzzles you so much, then all I will say is you might live a very sheltered life.

Again with the reluctance to answer direct questions 🤣 Why not just answer the questions and shut people up?

You may not hate it but you have nothing positive to say. It must be difficult to force yourself to live here.

I am not answering because the thread isn’t about me. I did say positive things about the UK on this thread so again I would refer you back to read my posts if so interested. I think you spectacularly missed the point I was making and I am not invested enough to explain over and over. Also have work to do. You know so I can pay for my private healthcare and don’t have to rely on your NHS 😛

The observation about people moving here and hating this country is absolutely free. Not sure why we put up with it. In fact our spineless, so called leaders, invite people in to hate the country and even do harm to the people here. And have the taxpayer pay for their largesse.

Surely you know where the door is if you are so unhappy.

Robert Kennedy’s quote about America’s attitude to aid really applies here.

“I don't know why we have to give money to countries that hate us. They should be able to hate us for free.”

Maybe people are just tired of the UK being taken for granted. Thousands criticising our way of life while clamouring to get here. Because we're a soft touch and we feel frightened of asserting our culture and identity and strengthening our borders? Pathetic.

Did you swallow the Daily Mail?

Things change.
The economy has changed.
We do not have enough housing or jobs.
Our first responsibility is not to you, or any other immigrant.

It is okay to admit you can’t answer any direct questions - always helps make your point 🤣