Income and applying for ILR

[pepper123]

Hi all, does anyone know where I can find income requirements for a work permit holder applying via Form Set (O)?

A little background: We are both Americans applying on Set (O) for a work permit holder and his dependant.

We have a healthy income, but as I was filling in ILR forms today I noticed that it asks for monthly pay after ALL deductions. I assume that means the total you take home after your retirement/pension contribution in addition to taxes, etc? Hubby recently upped his contribution quite a bit because we have a lot of money in savings, so it's fine if our expenses exceed our income a tiny bit each month as we just move it out of savings into checking.

The forms ask for our rent, which is very high. After taxes and retirement plan deductions, hubby's take-home pay is about 1,000 pounds more than the cost of rent. Is that considered enough to support yourself by the border agency? Where can I find out what they are looking for?

We have several thousand pounds in the bank, and in a US account we have several thousand dollars (do we include bank statements from the US?). I wasn't worried about this at all until I was filling in forms and needed to input his pay after deductions in a block right under where I listed our high rent -- our rent is more than half his take-home pay. If need be, we *might* have time to reduce payments to the retirement plan to enhance his take-home pay - we apply in January. I don't know what to do.

[geriatrix]

Well, you are worrying for no reason. The questions in the form that you refer to are to ascertain that the applicant is able to maintain himself and any dependants without recourse to public funds.

Whether one is left with 1000 pounds after paying rent or with 300, doesn't matter! High rent or low rent doesn't matter. Savings of 50K or 500 doesn't matter! As long as money coming in is more than money going out, no problem!

See also FAQs for ILR - WP/Tier 1/Tier 2/HSMP holders.

[pepper123]

Well, you are worrying for no reason. The questions in the form that you refer to are to ascertain that the applicant is able to maintain himself and any dependants without recourse to public funds.

Whether one is left with 1000 pounds after paying rent or with 300, doesn't matter! High rent or low rent doesn't matter. Savings of 50K or 500 doesn't matter! As long as money coming in is more than money going out, no problem!

See also FAQs for ILR - WP/Tier 1/Tier 2/HSMP holders.

But they must have a estimate on how much they think you need to live. If you only had 300 left after rent, how could they assume you have enough to live on? They don't know how much you have going out beyond the rent, but they know you need something. So they must have an estimate of what they think is enough to cover reasonable expenses. I know for FLR they require something like 105 a week after rent and council tax, and I can't find the numbers for ILR. I doubt we have anything to worry about, but it's nice to know what is wanted going into this.