Minimum-income requirements will be unfair to many pensioners, writes Gordon Reid, while Patricia Gibson warns about its potential effect in the north
The Reunite Families group plans to take legal action against the new minimum income requirement of £38,700 for spouse and family visas (Report, 17 December), which the government has now said it will phase in, with the threshold first rising to £29,000 (Report, 21 December). Most of the reporting on this has rightly focused on families being separated. But two aspects that have been largely ignored – the situation of pensioners and Ireland.
First, pensioners: my wife (an EU citizen) and I gave up any thought of returning to live in the UK after Brexit because the income threshold is far above my small occupational pension, and even when I get the state pension, my income will be nowhere near the new requirement.
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