Conclusion 6

Applying income-based reductions to qualifying periods for settlement at an individual, rather than a household level, could lead to perverse outcomes, and obscure the contribution of immigrants who take on a greater proportion of caregiving, whose care may enable their partners to take on more demanding and higher earning careers. These changes may also deter high earning immigrants that we want to come to the UK, if their partners are on much longer routes to settlement than them. However, we recognise that assessing income at a household level also could lead to inconsistent outcomes, such as two colleagues on an identical income having different paths to settlement based on how well-off the person they married is. (Conclusion, Paragraph 30)