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.

Don’t take the one year maternity leave then. Many women in the UK don’t.

I have asked this before but will you be paying for all healthcare and education for your child?

@ilovesooty can you clearly state the entitlement I have made? I am waiting

So you want to discriminate against lower earning women? Nice!

I also hope I never need a&e. This is one of my main reasons for not wanting to live here as I get older and potentially will need some sort of care. I would be so much better off in my own country. I also love my DH so that is a compromise I have made. And no, I don’t have to love living in the UK. If that hurts your narrative of the “grateful” immigrants, then that’s on you. Lots of people who marry people from other countries make similar compromises as me.

Yes, discrimination is just fine so long as its against other women.

This is the reality - people like Miaaaaaow have come to the UK, don't want to be here and have zero gratitude. Imagine migrating anywhere else and telling the people they can stick their country!!! We're supposed to welcome these people.

Did you ask MN to move the threads you have started on this subject to campaigns as I suggested upthread and on your other?

@LostWitch I am glad I said my perspective is not Exhaustive. Don’t misquote me

Well you have produced a person who will need to be educated - will you be funding that privately?

Taking a year off for maternity leave is a choice. 2 weeks is mandatory. 6 weeks is at 90% of your pay so you’d not drop below a threshold.

I agree with this, I'm afraid - and you couldn't ever pay me enough to vote Reform or Restore!

What is it like at present? We went through ILR and got citizenship about 5 years ago now so conscious the rules may have changed. In the case of a spouse visa, it was either party had to meet the threshold so it could be argued that the husband’s salary should still be suffice assuming it meets the threshold. Isn’t this still the case?

I recall hating the admin of it all, especially before it went digital (last app) which to be fair made it much easier. And the worry of losing a job in the run up to a renewal. There was always the savings route as a fail safe backup. Does this still exist?

I don’t think you’re right to spin it as an attack women though. Shouting “mysogny” when it isn’t (or is at best an unforeseen or unintended consequence) helps no-one.

This is an excellent explanation

@Anarchy99 how are you able to call giving birth a PRODUCTION?

@Miaaaaaow could you please tell us which desirable country you came from? Then we could all tell you how awful it is.

I don’t think you have specified this but the relevant issue here is maybe that a male and female as a couple/new parents face different challenges in the five year rule if they have a baby? Therefore unfair?

You know just because maternity leave is available for x months doesn’t meant everyone can afford to take those months o me that taking them is a good plan for their circumstances. Many work from very early eg six weeks for lots of reasons that make sense to them eg affording their rent, not defaulting on their mortgage, maintaining career progression, building a business, being alone, being the family ‘breadwinner’, finishing a degree, career progression for the long term benefit….. Couples who have a baby have to ‘team up’ to make the best of necessary personal circumstances for you it is immigration for me it was a fledgling business that could not grown without my input.

Your attitude seems to be that you should get what you are entitled to as a new mum and get a free pass for childbearing for immigration purposes but many people do not benefit from a full maternity leave without consequence, many can’t afford to rest and relax in the best entitlement because there are many other considerations not just immigration.

However I can see that between you and your male partner there is a difference here as you biologically carry the pregnancy and early weeks.

At that level perhaps your partner is earning enough to cover your shortfall and you could be considered together or you can share the parenting leave to achieve the right result.

I hope you get back to your home country soon.

You don’t have to love it (and you clearly don’t) but you don’t have to slag off a country that you chose to settle in.

I assume that if you have children, they are privately educated?

Is this a rage bait bot? Seems likely. 👋🏼

🤣I really hit a nerve didn’t I. Bless you.

I know it's tough if this sort of thing happens but in the 21st century we are not hostages to pregnancy, there is birth control. You don't have to take a years maternity leave, I used to have a very highly paid boss who took three weeks and that included her annual two weeks holiday in Europe. You can also have the man taking parental leave.

Ok, I’ll bite.
Why did you want to come and live here?

I wish the home office could devise a maximum threshold for stressful energy qualification tbh

You're overreacting op - in many countries you'd have to go back to work anyway so just do that if it's an issue

There’s no requirement that an immigration policy be just and most of them are not.

lots of countries (the Middle East being obvious examples) want immigrants for various things but do not allow them to become citizens at all. Saudi doesn’t allow oil workers to become citizens, Dubai doesn’t permit immigrants to become citizens.

most western countries have tougher immigration regulations than Britain.

the US is notoriously tough, but most western countries have a lot of hoops.

about the only thing I don’t like about this is that I do think spouses should be exempted but I know they’ve had terrible trouble in the past with marriages of convenience so I can’t really blame them.

I didnt misquote you. I literally quoted you.

What are you objecting to? The fact you said women earning over 50k should be exempt from the earning requirements?