UK MINISTERS HAVE rowed back on plans to hike the earning threshold Britons need to bring foreign family members to live in the UK to £38,700 (€44,620).

Instead, the UK Government has confirmed plans to increase the threshold to £29,000 (€33,440) in the spring.

British Home Secretary James Cleverly had announced the increase from £18,600 (€21,450) to £38,700 (€44,620) as part of a package of measures to curb legal migration.

But the move attracted criticism as it threatened to tear families apart, with many having their future thrown into doubt as the UK Government considered the details of the policy.

Home Office minister Andrew Sharpe confirmed the change of plans in answer to a written parliamentary question today.

The minister said that the current threshold of £18,600 (€21,450) allows 75% of the UK working population to bring their foreign family members into the country to live.

He added that increasing the threshold to £38,700 (€44,620) would limit the same right to 30% of the working population.

Sharpe said: “In spring 2024, we will raise the threshold to £29,000, that is the 25th percentile of earnings for jobs which are eligible for Skilled Worker visas, moving to the 40th percentile (currently £34,500) and finally the 50th percentile (currently £38,700 and the level at which the general skilled worker threshold is set) in the final stage of implementation.”

The minister said the threshold would be “increased in incremental stages to give predictability”.

However, no date for when the threshold would rise beyond £29,000 was given in Sharpe’s answer, nor did one appear in a Home Office paper published today detailing the plans.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak previously told MPs the UK Government was looking at “transitional arrangements” for changes to the thresholds to make sure they are “fair”.

The Liberal Democrats suggested the planned £38,700 threshold was “unworkable”.

The party’s home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael added: “This was yet another half-thought through idea to placate the hardliners on their own back benches.

“James Cleverly needs to put down the spade and stop digging. Decisions like this should be made by experts and politicians working together.”