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.

I know! Clause 2:4 ‘any immigrant that becomes pregnant is required to terminate their pregnancy if they wish to remain in the UK’ is disgusting!

I am writing this with a newborn in my arms

Sure you are, totally fake rage baiting thread.

So people who want ilr need to contribute for at least 3 of the last 5 years they live in the UK. That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.
On the subject of having a child. Many UK residents have to wait for a few years to have a child for many reasons, financial, housing, health etc. What makes new immigrants different?
I waited for 5 years after I got married to have a baby because we simply weren’t in a position to do so earlier. Our choice obviously. Just like it was your choice to come to the UK and have a child here. If you want to immigrate to a new country you play by their rules.
You might not have noticed but the general narrative in the UK at the moment supports much tougher immigration controls than this. Nobody wants people coming to the country without a clear intention to contribute.

Me and lots of my peers born in late sixties, early seventies never could afford to have children, so didn't. Perhaps people will think more about career Vs children if this is the case now.

I lived abroad for 15 years as an immigrant. This is why I wanted until I had permanent residency before having kids and buying a property. It’s way too risky otherwise. Your income could drop, you could lose your visa, the rules could change…

Sorry OP, but limited sympathy from me.

As an expat at times and child of migrants and possible future migrant myself you really don’t “have” to live anywhere than your own country You choose it because it is in some way convenient to you. I’m not living anywhere other than Britain for anyones sake other than my own and my familiy’s wellbeing. You migrated to Britain because it suited your circumstances, your Dh could have migrated to your country as well.

I’m happy to have you, I don’t mind of you disagree with how the UK does stuff, thats all fine. I also think the UK is lucky in that we have had some wonderful people move to the Uk who made a positive contribution (including my own parents).

I would suggest though that as most of us who leave our own countries for work/love etc etc know we always have the choice to go home. I am not telling you to go home btw I’m saying that if at any point any of the places I have lived had become intolerable, home was always on the table. One day I may decide to make another country home permanently and no-one will be forcing me to do it. I’ll look at the rules, see if they are acceptable to me and then apply, if the rules change I will complain and then decide if I still want to be there. OP isn’t wrong to be upset or complain but she’s acting like she doesn’t have choices when she clearly does.

And people wonder why there’s so much hostility in the UK towards migrants.

This is just rage bait.

Contraception is freely available here. Nobody has to abort a baby. They just need to plan ahead and make an informed choice to get pregnant or take steps to avoid it. That's just common sense and is something you should be doing anyway whether you are a migrant or not.

Did you join MN just to start these campaign threads? If so you should have asked MN to put them in "campaigns" which also makes their purpose clear.

Do you have a link for this please?

It's not a human right to have 2 children in 5 years.

Enjoy your baby @Zinary and have the second one when it's financially and practically the best time to do so.

A lot British people would say exactly the same as me about the NhS and the welfare system you have got going here. A lot of people would blame it on migrants though which is exactly what Farrage and his lot wants.

The fix is simple. For years where you’re on maternity leave (which is fully evidenced by MatB1, letters to your employer etc so can be legitimately verified). Any weeks spent on maternity are calculated using your AWE (which already exists to calculate mat pay) to create a notional annual salary added to your actual earnings for the months worked, and they could recreate this exemption for 1 maternity leave. Therefore spanning potentially 2 tax years.

The voting is reassuring. Deal with it OP.

sounds completely far fetched and unbelievable.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

It was sarcasm, as the previous poster said women will have to abort babies to stay.
No, they can miss two years of the earning threshold so can still have babies and they also have access to contraception very easily in this country. No need for anyone to abort.

As you say you've done all the right things and financially massively invested in a life here, as will your spouse, according to the rules set out and now they are retrospectively changing them - probably in a desperate attempt to appease the far Right
There are situations where I would say that the new rule is unfair, or certainly very sad.

However, in OPs case, it's just a cry for entitlement and it's her circumstances that people are responding to.

She doesn't have to gave another child within the next 2 years. She doesn't have to return to work after 4 weeks. She could take a holiday and be fully paid during that period. The majority of gen X women returned to work after 6 weeks because that's when 90% pay ended. We all survived.

OP is shouting woe is me because she has to make choices many British women have to make or gad to make in similar circumstances and she just doesn't like it.

I’ll make one up…

Yes, but you’ve actually come here as a migrant and are telling us that it’s crap and ‘we can stick our country’. We don’t need you here and I suspect most people, knowing your attitude to the UK, wouldn’t want you here. You are a prime example of why migrants face so much hostility. It is a great shame that your husband bought you here, you’d have been better off settling elsewhere.

That wasn’t clear - perhaps you could help the previous poster with the use of emojis

No one needs to have children, no one needs to have 2 children in 5 years. These are all wants and choices

Not to everyone apparently.

@IsItSnowing I love the fact you were honest to say you made your CHOICE. My is my choice determined by the government. Imagine the government had said you must have kids within the years you didn’t want want or they created laws that forced you into having kids how would you honestly feel?

Apparently it is a fundamental right to do this in any country of your choosing. Who knew?