Immigration health surcharge

[wobblyjohn]

Why should the missus have to pay the immigration health surcharge when she has been working for the last 2 years and contributed all that timeand never been to see a doctor apart from a few health checks our practice  (i went through the same checks at the same time when we registered) 

If she had come to the UK and never worked I could understand but this £1000 charge seems quite unfair 

 

 

 

[theoldgit]

If you're talking about the NHS Surcharge that is payable by Settlement Visa Appicants and applicants for FLR, even if they're taxpayers and make NI Contributions in their own right, this has been discussed many times on the forum.

 

Nobody here can give an answer as to why, save to say that it's unfair and discriminatory, but is popular with many UK Citizens, and is an easy way of raising tax revenue, I would suggest you take it up with your MP.

 

I have removed your off topic screenshot which I suspect was posted in error.

[durhamboy]

I agree wobblyjohn and to make it worse from October it goes up from £1000 to £1560.

[wobblyjohn]

I will talk to my MP after she has got the FLR and covid19 crisis is over

I don't want to throw a spanner in the works at this stage

 

Sorry about the scrrenshot that was intended for a different thread

[wobblyjohn]

I think as she has been paying tax and national insurance contributions from her salary she shouldn't be charged

If your from Europe I don't think charges apply

As far as I'm concerned it's sort of racism 

[puchooay]

Even though the stay is only 2.5 years I thought the surcharge was 3 years. Making a total of £1200. 

 

 

[donnacha]

Politically, successive UK governments of both parties had to introduce these heavy-handed tactics against non-EU migrants because there was absolutely nothing they could do to deal with the real problem, uncontrolled mass migration from the EU.

Home Secretaries would introduce these nasty policies as a way to placate voters who were distressed to see their country changing so much. Whether or not those concerns were justified, the politicians had to pretend they were doing something.

 

In my opinion, the most outrageous and inhumane is that UK citizens cannot return to their home country with their foreign husband or wife unless they can prove they earn a salary significantly higher than the UK average, while any other EU citizen could settle in the UK with their foreign husband or wife without any such rules.



 

[theoldgit]

9 hours ago, donnacha said:

In my opinion, the most outrageous and inhumane is that UK citizens cannot return to their home country with their foreign husband or wife unless they can prove they earn a salary significantly higher than the UK average, while any other EU citizen could settle in the UK with their foreign husband or wife without any such rules.

 

Whilst I sympathise with your argument, your claims are factually wrong, the average salary for the UK is £26,624, this figure is for March 2020 as published by the ONS recently, so is considerably higher that the figure of £18,600 required for a foreign spouse of a UK Citizen to settle in the UK.
Yes, the spouse of an EU National can currently settle in the UK without having to meet the financial requirements, as can UK Nationals settle in the remaining 27 member states, but their days are numbered.

[donnacha]

43 minutes ago, theoldgit said:

Whilst I sympathise with your argument, your claims are factually wrong, the average salary for the UK is £26,624, this figure is for March 2020 as published by the ONS recently, so is considerably higher that the figure of £18,600 required for a foreign spouse of a UK Citizen to settle in the UK.

Ah, okay. So, £18,600 of provable income, just a few hundred over what you would gross if you worked 40 hours a week on the minimum wage (which a surprising number of British citizens do, especially outside London), but not the high number I imagined.

It does appear, though, to cause a lot of problems, usually because the authorities - in their safe, pensioned jobs - have a rigid definition of what types of job are acceptable. Again, an increasing number of British citizens work in a mix of part-time jobs and "gig economy" side hustles. Note, too, that the amount required goes up a bit for each dependent kid you might have, or if your wife is pregnant when she arrives in the UK. Immigration officers sometimes conduct medical examinations if they have a hunch a new arrival might be.

For whatever reasons, this rule has made live Hell for a lot of UK citizens married to foreign partners. I believe the long-term economic and social order fallout from current crisis is going to result in a lot of such couples deciding to return to the relative safety of the UK. Many will find it very, very hard to find any sort of salaried job, and the minimum wage could become even more of a standard than it already is, making it harder again for a couple with a kid to two.

It is wrong on principle. If you told an American that he did not have the right to, say, bring his Filipino wife back to his family homestead in Wyoming, he would rightly be outraged. The British public, on the other hand, accept it because they are told it is necessary to protect the NHS, or prevent abuse of the welfare system. This is one of those situations that highlights the flaw in rolling so much of life into government control.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by donnacha

[Caldera]

On the bright side, the UK doesn't only treat immigrants (with the exception of Russian oligarchs) with contempt, but also their own citizens - all the proof you need is what level of support Brits stuck abroad have gotten from their embassies, compared with citizens of more civilized countries such as France and Germany.

 

[Pedrogaz]

They should do this in Thailand...charge all the farangs on retirement, marriage and Non O Visas the equivalent....say 40,000 a year and give you access to healthcare. Collect 10,000 at every entry and 90 day report.

[rickudon]

2 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

They should do this in Thailand...charge all the farangs on retirement, marriage and Non O Visas the equivalent....say 40,000 a year and give you access to healthcare. Collect 10,000 at every entry and 90 day report.

If it was only 40,000 a year most of us would find this reasonable. Unfortunately even 10 years ago when i looked into Health Insurance the cheapest policy i could find was about 8,000 baht a month, which was a very significant percentage of my income. And of course, it goes up as you get older. Fortunately my total medical costs over ten years has been about 30,000 baht, mainly for dental work.

 

If you work in Thailand and pay into the social security system for a while (not sure how long) and keep up contributions you are covered even after you stop work. An option to pay into the system for those on retirement would be nice, even if surcharged by 50% or so.

 

Private health insurance is pretty close to extortion.

Edited April 10, 2020 by rickudon
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