Earned Settlement: What You Would Have to Earn to Settle in the UK

Q: Is there one salary threshold for settlement in the UK?

No. The plan uses several figures that do different jobs. In the table below, “Figure” is the annual amount in CP 1707, “What it does” is its role, and “Test period” is how long CP 1707’s summary or best-years section says it must be met.

Q: When would the earnings tiers start?

No start date for the salary tiers has been published. Ministers have worded the timetable differently in Parliament:

By Kimi · November 6, 2026 · 11 min read

Earned Settlement: What You Would Have to Earn to Settle in the UK

Photo by Tom Chen on Unsplash

Key takeaways

On 2 November 2026 the Home Secretary announced earnings tiers for indefinite leave to remain in the government response CP 1707. As of 6 November 2026 none is in force and the rules have not been laid.
There is no single threshold: £12,571 minimum, £25,142 household alternative for couples, £50,271 for a 5-year path and £125,141 for a 3-year path, plus a £25,000 transitional condition for care workers.
£50,271 is not a condition of settling. It shortens the wait from the 10-year default, and public service or a British connection can also lead to 5 years.
The rules in force are separate: Skilled Worker settlement still takes 5 years under SW 21.1, with a general salary test of £41,700 and the going rate under SW 24.3.
⚠️ No start date for the salary tiers has been published. The Commons was told changes would be implemented over the course of 2027; the Lords was told a first stage takes effect in January 2027, with more in 2027 and 2028.
⚠️ Still unpublished: how earnings will be defined, whether SW 24.3 survives once the tiers start, and any protection for pending applications or people reaching five years before commencement.

On Monday 2 November 2026 the Home Secretary announced earnings tiers for indefinite leave to remain in the government response “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement” (CP 1707), but none of them is in force, the rules have not been laid, and there is no single salary threshold for settlement. The plan has a £12,571 minimum, a £25,142 household alternative for couples, £50,271 for a shorter 5-year path and £125,141 for a 3-year path, plus a £25,000 transitional condition for care workers. Earnings are not the only way to a shorter wait: migrants can also reach 5 years through public service or a British connection. This is the position as of 11:36 UTC on Friday 6 November 2026.

Is there one salary threshold for settlement in the UK?

No. The plan uses several figures that do different jobs. In the table below, “Figure” is the annual amount in CP 1707, “What it does” is its role, and “Test period” is how long CP 1707’s summary or best-years section says it must be met.

Figure	What it does	Test period
£12,571	Minimum, 10-year default	5 of previous 7 years
£25,142	Couples’ alternative to £12,571	Not stated separately
£50,271	Shortens the wait to 5 years	3 of last 5 years
£125,141	Shortens the wait to 3 years	3 of last 4 years
£25,000	Care-worker transitional condition	Stated as a yearly salary

CP 1707 says the tiers will stay linked to the relevant tax thresholds and move with them. For how the plan got this far, see our 28 September explainer . It was written before this response, so its figures are consultation-stage proposals.

Would you have to earn £50,271 to settle?

No. Under the plan £50,271 shortens the wait; it is not a condition of settling. Someone below it would default to 10 years if they met the £12,571 minimum and the other requirements. The paper offers two other ways to reach 5 years without that salary:

Public service: having worked for 5 years in an occupation listed in Annex C, including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, social workers and teachers. The teaching titles cover further education, secondary, primary, nursery and special needs, plus head teachers. No university lecturer title is listed.
British connection: eligible partners, parents and children of British citizens, and Commonwealth citizens on the UK Ancestry route. CP 1707’s own example is someone on £42,000 married to a British citizen.

The 3-year path also has a non-salary door, the Highest Talent Group, though Table 1 says its definition is subject to review pending a Migration Advisory Committee report.

Reaching a figure is not enough by itself, because the person’s route must be eligible for that path. Family and Private Life permission cannot use the 3-year or 5-year paths. CP 1707 lists this separately from the core Family - Partner and Partner/Parent routes, whose definition excludes Article 8 cases. Time on routes such as Student, Graduate, Global Business Mobility, Youth Mobility and the Ukraine schemes would not count at all.

Groups outside the main framework include Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders, the armed forces and Windrush cases, though people on these routes would still need to meet the tougher criminality and B2 English rules unless an existing exemption or safeguard applies.

How many years of earnings would the minimum require?

CP 1707 does not give one answer, and we are not choosing one for it. The government’s own documents say different things:

Chapter 2 says £12,571 a year “for at least three years”, and Annex B says a minimum of three years.
The best-years section in the same chapter, and Table 1, say 5 of the 7 years before applying on the 10-year path.
The Home Secretary’s Commons statement says 3 years of National Insurance contributions.

These may turn out to be different tests, or the same test described loosely. The rules will have to settle it. Children, people aged 65 and over, and those unable to meet the minimum because of a physical or mental condition would be exempt from it. Refugee routes have their own table in CP 1707 and are not covered here.

How is this different from the £41,700 Skilled Worker salary threshold?

£41,700 is in the Immigration Rules today, while the earnings tiers are still a plan. Appendix Skilled Worker was last changed with reference to HC 584, the Statement of Changes of 3 September 2026, and its page history dates that update to 8 October 2026. It currently says:

SW 21.1: a continuous period of 5 years in the UK for Skilled Worker settlement.
SW 24.3: a salary of at least £41,700 and the going rate in the general case, with lower rows of £33,400, £31,300 and £25,000 for defined groups.
SW 22A.1: English at level B2 in speaking and listening for applications made on or after 26 March 2027. This came from HC 1691 of March 2026. GOV.UK called it the first delivery of the Earned Settlement reforms, and it reaches most settlement applicants, not only Skilled Workers. It is written into the rules, while the earnings tiers are not.

Separately, the Budget of 28 October 2026 says the general threshold will be uprated on 2026 wage data as part of changes from spring 2027. We found no new figure published. The Immigration Salary List, which sits behind the £33,400 row, is due to close on 31 December 2026, according to NHS Employers.

Under the plan, someone on £41,700 would fall short of £50,271 and default to 10 years unless another route applied. CP 1707 also says the pre-April 2024 Skilled Worker cohort, in roles below RQF 6, could extend on current terms until 2035. The rule in force, SW 4.2(b)(ii), still requires an application before 4 April 2030.

Is £25,000 the salary everyone would need?

No. Under the plan £25,000 is a transitional condition for certain care workers, and it is not the £25,142 couples’ figure. Separately, £25,000 is already the lowest salary row in today’s SW 24.3, for defined groups, and that rule is in force. The plan’s condition would work like this:

Care workers who entered or switched into the route before the White Paper of 12 May 2025 would keep 5 years if they met the £25,000 salary, sponsorship and employment requirements, plus the new minimum standards.
Those who fell short could apply for a further 5-year Health and Care visa. The Home Office puts that group at around a quarter.
Care workers who joined after that date would go on the 10-year path.
Health and education workers below RQF 6 on national pay scales, such as nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants, would get a one-off 5-year route if they came before the White Paper and meet the requirements of their visa.

CP 1707 gives 1 February 2027 for one related measure: longer job-search periods for care workers whose sponsor loses its licence. That is not a start date for the tiers.

When would the earnings tiers start?

No start date for the salary tiers has been published. Ministers have worded the timetable differently in Parliament:

Commons, 2 November: Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the changes would begin to be laid from the December immigration rules and be implemented over the course of 2027.
Lords, 2 November: Lord Collins of Highbury, for the government, said the first stage would begin in December and take effect in January 2027, with further rule changes in 2027 and 2028.
Bill committee, 3 November: Home Office minister Anna Turley said the regulations would be laid in December and come into force in 2027.

None says which stage contains the earnings tiers. This is why the wording on GOV.UK needs care. Its headline says “new rules”, and Mahmood’s quote in that story says “From today, it must be earned”, but both describe a policy announced that day. Immigration Rules change through a Statement of Changes laid before Parliament, and when we checked on 6 November the latest one listed was still HC 584.

What is still unknown about the tiers?

Several points that decide real cases have not been published. The government has promised further guidance and an impact assessment before implementation. Until then:

What counts as earnings: the 2025 consultation said “taxable income”, while the response says “earnings” and does not define it. Law firm Lewis Silkin thinks taxable is more likely, which is its inference. The current Skilled Worker test of guaranteed basic gross pay (SW 14.1) is a different test.
SW 24.3: what we read does not say whether it survives as an extra test once the tiers start.
Pending applications and people reaching five years before commencement: no protection has been published. There is no general exemption for people already in the UK.
Which date decides: the GOV.UK news story says rules apply at the point of application. CP 1707 says the rules in force at the date of decision, “unless transitional provisions are made”. In Commons questions Mahmood said both “point of decision” and “point of application and decision”, and Turley told the bill committee that decisions are made at the point a person applies. The sources do not reconcile these.
Other gaps: the Highest Talent Group definition (Lewis Silkin says a Migration Advisory Committee report is due by the end of December 2026), the full breach list, which public funds count, and the Long Residence closure date.

Because of these gaps, nothing published supports treating any date as a deadline to beat for the earnings tiers.

Couples could combine earnings for the minimum only, as CP 1707 describes it. The household figure is £25,142. One partner can reach it alone or both can reach it together, but only one person may rely on the other’s income. The paper does not describe combining earnings to reach £50,271 or £125,141.

Partners: one who arrives with the main applicant could settle at the same time if they meet the requirements. One who joins later would complete the same period. Lewis Silkin and Free Movement both note that the position for partners on the 3-year path is not settled.
Children under 18: exempt from the income, debt, English and Life in the UK requirements, but not from suitability and criminality checks.
Ages 18 to 24 with child-dependant status: no individual income test, but the other adult requirements apply.
Aged 25 or over when the family becomes eligible: expected to qualify independently or move to their own route.

Can a high salary make up for other problems?

No. CP 1707 says the mandatory requirements cannot be offset by higher earnings. Those include no criminal record for adult applicants, no outstanding government debt, B2 English, the Life in the UK test and sustained contribution.

A specified immigration breach committed as an adult would mean a 20-year path regardless of earnings. Using specified public funds in the 5 years before applying would block the 3, 5 and 10-year paths. CP 1707 gives two ways forward in that case: a continuous 5-year period without those funds on a qualifying route, or 20 years. Table 1 still lists the £12,571 test on the 20-year path.

How many migrants would wait longer?

The Home Office estimates over 500,000 people would become eligible later than under current arrangements. It says its central forecast for settlement in 2026 to 2030 falls from 1.9 million to 1.4 million. Its illustrative figures for Skilled Workers in that forecast, excluding dependants, are 27,000 on the 3-year path, 86,000 on the 5-year path and 146,000 on the 10-year path.

The Home Office also says settled status will never be removed from anyone who already holds it, and that no one will be forced to leave. Visas still carry their own conditions, however, and CP 1707 says care workers who cannot resolve their position within the new time limits would have their visa curtailed.

Where can you get advice on your own case?

Use a solicitor or an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (formerly OISC), which GOV.UK lets you search. This page is general information, not legal advice, and it cannot tell you which path you would be on. Check the current rules on GOV.UK.

Sources

How we verified this

Tiers and conditions were read directly in CP 1707, “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: Government Response to the Consultation” (November 2026): Chapter 2, Chapter 4 and footnotes 9 and 10, Chapter 5, Chapter 8, Table 1 and Annexes A to C. The Home Office statement and news story of 2 November 2026 were read on GOV.UK.

Internal inconsistency: CP 1707 gives “at least three years” and “a minimum of three years” (Chapter 2, Annex B) and 5 of the previous 7 years (Chapter 2 best-years section, Table 1) for the £12,571 minimum. The oral statement says 3 years of national insurance contributions. This page reports the conflict and does not resolve it. A second conflict is also reported unresolved: the news story says rules apply at the point of application; CP 1707 says the date of the settlement decision, “unless transitional provisions are made”; Mahmood said “point of decision” and “point of application and decision” in Commons questions; and Anna Turley referred to the point at which a person applies in committee on 3 November.

Timing rests on the Hansard API text for the Commons and Lords debates titled “Immigration: Earned Settlement”, 2 November 2026 (Shabana Mahmood; Lord Collins of Highbury), and for the Immigration and Asylum Bill committee, sixteenth sitting, 3 November 2026 (Anna Turley). The hansard.parliament.uk web pages refused automated access, so these records were confirmed through the API.

What is in force was re-read on GOV.UK at about 11:36 UTC on 6 November 2026: Appendix Skilled Worker (SW 14.1, SW 21.1, SW 22A.1, SW 24.3, SW 4.2(b)), whose change history last cites HC 584 on 8 October 2026; and the Statement of Changes collection, where HC 584 of 3 September 2026 is the latest entry. The spring 2027 uprating comes from the Budget 2026 document; no new figure was found.

Single-source or inferred: the view that “earnings” probably means taxable earnings and the MAC report date come from Lewis Silkin; the point on partners of 3-year applicants comes from Lewis Silkin and Free Movement. All are attributed. The Immigration Salary List closure date rests on NHS Employers and was not separately confirmed in the Rules. BBC pages and the Commons Library briefing could not be read and are not relied on. Nothing here is legal advice.