The UK government backpedals on migrant salary threshold but there’s a catch

Well... we did it!.... almost
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[@Dark_Embracer]

Paying £300k for MP's heating bills for their second homes when MP's earn a salary of £92k. And that seems to be okay? 🤔🤨

[@ethelmini]

That's because we pay the likes of the French nationalised energy company for not supplying energy to their UK customers.

[@Pixiedust8399]

The argument paying MPs that much is allow people from modest backgrounds a chance to become an MP. If MPs only received a meagre salary, you'd end up being represented by only those from wealthier backgrounds who could afford run for office. It's a little bit like London where the rich graduates/actors can afford to work for nothing for a year to get a step on the ladder because they have family wealth to support them.

[@Dark_Embracer]

@@Pixiedust8399 But why pay for MP's heating bills for their second homes after they earn 92k as a salary?

[@rlmtrelomatt7390]

To even begin to want to be a politician a handsome sum of money is needed and well out of the reach of ordinary people😢​@@Pixiedust8399

[@ahmadalwadi9156]

@@Pixiedust8399 You missed the point, MPs should have a large enough salary so that people are inclined to put their name in and they don't become liable to corruption. But why are we paying their energy bill? I mean for poor people, their energy bills don't get subsidiesed, they did it last year or whatever it was but that was it

[@scottcurtis1770]

I have a Thai wife of 8 years who has been with me in the UK for about 6 years. Her English isn't great, but she communicates well with everyone she meets. Her issue is that she freezes in a test situation. We have had to restart the spousal visa once before and are due to do the same again soon. As you have stated, I look after her financially in everything, paying for the NHS surcharge, council tax etc. We live in private rented accommodation and don't rely on anyone. I am worried that when reapplying for the spousal visa this time, we may encounter issues with all of the increased costs. We Don't ask for anything from the government, only a fair shot at living our lives together unhindered. Keep up the good work and please keep reporting on this. Thank you.

[@2pb]

My sympathies to you both. The constant opportunistic raising of the spouse visa and Immigration Health Surcharge fees is a huge double whammy. Add to that the 50 quid per pop for the LITUK test. I believe there is some type of medical exemption you can apply for if your wife simply cannot pass the test due to medical reasons - perhaps psychological in this case? I would suggest visiting your GP to see whether this route is feasible.

[@ChiaraDeLiberato]

I was about to suggest the same. Please see a lawyer snd a doctor and se if you can get your wife exempted from taking test. Good luck ❤

[@tombartram7384]

Ask her who Francis Pym was. See if she slips up.

[@monkeyatemycookie]

The 29K aalary sounds very high as someone from Scotland, that's a high paying job. I'm a doctor and I don't make that much. let alone my spouse. I want to return to the UK but my spouse is European and earns 17k a year working from home as a translator, so they basically told us that we can't move back to the UK together. We have a small club here of British doctors who don't want to go back because of the government atm

[@Faiythe]

Yep, as soon as you take certain southern areas out of the equation the average U.K. salary falls very quickly.

[@mildlydispleased3221]

Scotland is supposed to have some of the best salaries outside of London and the inbred Southeast. Much higher than the dirt poor north.

[@shelleyphilcox4743]

Then you must be FY1...which actually increased this year from £29.3k to £32.3k basic, before additional sums for extra or out of hours uplifts and £37303 for FY2 on the 2016 contract. CT1 & 2 pay is £43923 basic, which is at 3/4 years out of university.

[@wetukman]

True I live in Scotland I work on many lines (and finance) in car insurance I earn 16k a year, so 29k is a bad number

[@ianjenkins1905]

@monkeyatemycookie I'm not sure where you live now, but I will call bs on you not being able as a Dr to earn more than the £29K in the UK. The average salary for a DR in the NHS, in the UK is £72K, DR's in training earn £32K and this moves up with with experience and moving into specialised fields. But then I would be suprised with salaries in Scotland. They are determined by the SNP.

[@lulumoon3636]

It's refreshing to see someone not from here talk about how insane, inept & incompetent the tories are. I'm a chronically ill & disabled person, my health stuff will affect me for life & they also have this plan to get people who can't work to go and work and it's all just like being in some sort of twilight zone where they don't live in the same reality

[@west3918]

You sound like a burden

[@skoop651]

I often do think leftists don't live in the same reality as normal people who want a civilized working society

[@lucie4185]

My brother was born with a disability and my parents still have to prove he is disabled. He's 38 and never been able to work.

[@vengeance523]

From what I understand it’s mainly targeted at people who have anxiety to try and get them remote jobs. There’s no reason why they can’t do that considering many people with anxiety still work.

[@nicktankard1244]

I commented a similar thing on the previous video but here it is again. I have some health issues as well and getting medical help and treatment here in Canada is just as bad as in the UK if not worse. And it’s the liberal party in power here. And Canada is perceived as a bastion of left leaning politics. The healthcare crisis and the housing crisis and the cost of living crisis are really bad here after many years of liberals in power. So yes Tories in the UK are pretty bad at managing the country. But the alternative might not be much better. Politicians are bad in general. Most of them anyway.

[@trickygoose2]

I am a Civil Servant whose job title includes the word "executive". After 17 years on my grade I have just breached this £29,000 threshold.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

And the pension not going to be as great as promised either. I left teaching for a lower salary in industry but in a couple of years doubled it and out paced it year on year.

[@anthonyferris8912]

Junior "executives" are entry-level positions in the business world. They typically work directly with senior executives and managers.

[@Mike-lb1hx]

You also have a pension worth around 2 thirds of your salary so a 50k package, nearly double the average wage,

[@gordonhayward4409]

I am always dismayed by civil servants getting treated the way they are now. It was always understood that you took a civil service job knowing it was below the market value for that position, but that you would have a good pension and conditions etc. Successive governments have eroded that benefit (mainly Tory but Blair takes some blame also). Shameful.

[@Jenny-tl7gk]

As a born and bred british... agree 100% with that u say. I think they just plan to drag the uk into the bin at this point 🙄 .. on the other hand, just know there are alot of uk citizens who welcome anyone into the country! 😊

[@alexh5759]

How the UK gov calculated £38,700: Average uk hourly wage = £15.50 Hours one can work per week = 48 (I mean officially, we can still have a 6 day work week) £15.5/hr * 48hr/wk * 52wk/yr = £38,688/yr round it to £38,700. In calculating the new number, i think they reduced the requirement to allo those who only work 37.5hrs/wk and went with 36hr/wk. I disagree with the policy but i listened to the minister and this was my interpretation of what they said was their calculation. Hope that helps.

[@pratosaurusrex1128]

I mean I know a lot of people who work 48 hours+ a week but which companies actually pay their staff for a 48 hour work week? My experience is the work week that most employers pay for is somewhere between 35 to 40 hours a week.

[@joepiekl]

​@@pratosaurusrex1128 Yep, even for hourly paid people, they might work 48 hours in a busy period, but that's the exception. I bet you'd struggle to find many hourly paid people who genuinely work 48 hours a week through the whole year.

[@pratosaurusrex1128]

@@joepiekl you do tend to get it with salaried workers, but still the employers don’t usually pay overtime so they are only paid for 35-40 hours of their week.

[@thearabianmage]

Take London out then do another national wage average and I’m sure you’ll get closer to £24-25,000. London skews a lot of national averages so sometimes these averages can be misrepresented.

[@evan]

That’s not misrepresentative though. It’s the most populous part of the country so REMOVING London would be misrepresentative

[@melitajay]

​@@evanLondon is only 13% of the country's population so it's not particularly representative

[@MasalaMan]

​@@melitajay13% only in London is pretty big!

[@BP-of5cp]

The funny thing is seeing the absolute desperation of UK employers in trying to find multilingual speakers in both tourism jobs and sales jobs with German, French, Spanish and Italian amongst the most requested and having to increase salary offerings because as we all know British born citizens who can speak anything other than English aren't many 😂. Those businesses are going to have to start offering salaries above the required threshold or deal with the fact their business is going to suffer the consequences.

[@mob8451]

I'm German and have nothing to do with the UK, but I love to watch your rants. Promised - if one day you rant about German politicians, I won't be offended.

[@bakakafka4428]

Get in line, he has to do Belgium (Flanders especially) first!

[@YHIEEDC]

You're German of course you like watching people complain ;)

[@FalkonNightsdale]

Ah Germany - the land of extremes… First ruining Europe with war… Now ruining Europe with smog from GreenDeal coal plants and criminality from "Wir schafen das!" nonsense…

[@jinankalo9386]

Rants? It's facts not rants, the Tories created brexitshit so they have full sovereignty over their corruption.

[@neverlookback1244]

@@bakakafka4428Flanders should separate they are single-handedly holding Belgium

[@kiljaeden7663]

Had to chuckle - I was in the UK on various visas for 8 years before getting citizenship and on each one of those there was in bold letters "NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS" But yeah - we come here to claim benefits lol.

[@JQ-999]

You'd be stupid to. Go to Germany. They'll give you £2000 a month with free accommodation. I'm thinking about becoming an asylum seeker myself.

[@matthewsmith908]

Well that's because people believe in the schrodinger immigrant, simultaneously stealing everyone's jobs and also sitting around being lazy and claiming benefits. It's an odd position to take

[@Gashinshoutan2009]

Yep, plus the surcharges on top of the actual visa application fees. So actually paying into the system.

[@IshtarNike]

Yes! And something I wasn't aware of until I had a relationship with an immigrant, is that their spouse isn't allowed to claim benefits either. It's assumed the money will be shared so they can't get anything either. Totally mental.

[@colinmorrison5119]

Schrödinger's Immigrant - coming to take your job while lazing around on benefits. It's an extension of the hostile environment - populist racism dressed up as sensible economic policy. It doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

[@grahamguest142]

Thanks for your contribution to this country Evan! ❤

[@gabortoth3644]

As someone who was in catering/hospitality £29k is kinda high..."How much does a Head chef make in United Kingdom? £33,000/Annual Based on 10000 salaries" Not to mention the lower ranks......

[@avancalledrupert5130]

But for anyone who Dousnt work in retal or hospility its bugger all. Its less than a site labourer makes emptying the bins and loading out for tradesman.

[@bigbarry8343]

the problem is, the wages are out of whack the the cost of living. Immigration is not going to help, especially from the low cost of living economies.

[@cryptolife9377]

UK minimum wage is £11.44 per hour, so most UK salaries are typically around £20,800 per year. Most positions only allow you to work 35 - 39 hours per week.

[@danielintheantipodes6741]

Asylum seekers are not illegal. They are entitled to make a claim for protection from the host country. They are only illegal if their claim is fairly found to have no merit and they then refuse to leave. If I was living in a country where my life was in peril, I also would want to escape and seek assistance. Thank you for the video.

[@nicktankard1244]

That’s a bit of a grey area. They are illegal when they cross the border but as soon as they claim asylum they are no longer technically illegal. I come from a bad country and I could’ve claimed asylum in any western country on arrival. And I know people who did claim asylum in the US based on political persecution. I immigrated legally 5 years ago though when my home country was not as bad as it became later. But also there are illegal immigrants who never claimed asylum and just live there. I don’t think it’s a big number though.

[@bar10ml44]

You seem ignorant to the fact that Asylum is not a money making criminal industry.

[@bar10ml44]

That should read IS a money making

[@odindave6506]

France ??? 😂

[@chrissouthgate4554]

@bar10ml44 Perhaps if it was possible to seek asylum to the UK before arriving here (as it used to be) then it would also not be a Criminal Industry. Similarly, if a few more Civil Servants had been employed to sort the problem out in a timely manner then the entirely predictable backlog would not be so large that we can't now employ enough of them!

[@IanDarley]

Still a lot easier than getting into the US. I was rejected in the 90s because the job only paid $45k and my American wife and I couldn't find a sponsor for $80k.

[@systemchris]

Spouse visa or work visa - my friend went there on a spouse visa to join her husband and he only earned 30000 usd he was only 25

[@user-mp5cg8lt7i]

Im pretty sure it’s not a 45k income threshold for the US.

[@IanDarley]

@@user-mp5cg8lt7i I'm speaking from first-hand experience (1991), not conjecture.

[@diavalus]

read the OP's comment again @@user-mp5cg8lt7i

[@dremmanuelnwogu]

Taxation and immigration is the hugest source of revenue to the UK government. The immigrants on visas have no recourse to public funds(benefits) and visa fees/ ILR fees, IHS(Immigration health surcharge) keeps going up. There are many “criminal” forms of extortion in the UK, but people can’t complain/revolt as they are boxed into tight corners. The system doesn’t encourage hardwork. The harder you work, the more tax you pay(PAYE,NI contributions) while those who earn much less or not earning live off the benefits of your labour. In the long run, people find ways to avoid working hard and get into benefits system. Who doesn’t like the soft life afterall? If things must get better, the government should be talking about ways to ensure that the major source of revenue isn’t taxation and immigration. There should be motivation to drive people into the workforce.

[@thedeutschman9905]

The worst part of this is nobody is fighting for the non spouse visa income change because it’s not happening to British people, I guess it really takes for it to affect British people to see a change.

[@davidjohnson5635]

Sometimes it seems effecting them does not seem to matter if you can frame it as happening to someone else, too.

[@CameliaCraftsDesigns]

The current government pull most of their ideas from the same place as that initial figure😐

[@joepiekl]

Let's be clear, this is what the Tories do all the time. Announce something horrendous, but not officially, just via the media (are expected to increase the threshold), and then deliver the actual policy based on how much outrage the vague, unofficial announcement gets.

[@Matityahu755]

"Happy holidays, Evan! I've noticed that your accent is becoming more British than American."

[@thejamesthird]

Newly qualified nurses are only on £28,704 are they going to send all the migrant nurses home? Ridiculous

[@mogreen19]

Serious topic and Evan made me laugh way too much. Thanks. Ans a merry happy holidays to you too 😀

[@RichardFraser-y9t]

Its almost like they have no idea what they are doing.

[@87CVH]

Cause they don't and don't care, all they do is react to situations in order to stay in their job for another few weeks

[@gwrydd]

rishis plan is to ruin Britain and hes succeeding

[@Han-rw9ev]

£29,000? The Tories need to pay more attention to what a lot of regular UK citizens are being paid.. I mean, cut out all the billionaires and millionaires, and then see what the rest are actually getting. Even 'just' £20,000 is considered standard..

[@bicker31]

Pointing out that migrants tank housing prices by making areas less desirable for purchase is not a winning pro-migration argument, my guy...

[@jwb52z9]

All of this makes me wonder why the Tories don't migrate to the US where what they want is already basically done with impunity, just even more cruelly and straightforwardly.

[@IshtarNike]

Which Tories? If you mean the voters then they probably should. Obviously the politicians wouldn't do that because they want to be on top and if they moved to the US the top spots are already taken.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

Yep take up that green card he was granted and leave.

[@daliaa5294]

British immigrants have no recourse to public funds but we have to pay into NI which funds the public from our payslip. Why can’t we be exempt from that tax ?

[@jdnetwork-reselling]

if they are not in social housing then they are renting, causing an increase in demand which does reflect on house process, when rents go up buy to let property investments become more sought after

[@andthatsshannii]

I cried for days when this originally happened. I'm just sorting my marriage papers out after being with my future husband for over 4 years. I'm a teacher, so I don't make a whole lot. I just want to be together now. Spent a long time trying to figure out more sources of income - trying to make a tutoring business work, freaking out. I can afford the new salary threshold to sponsor his spousal visa, but I'm really considering leaving the country now thanks to all this. It's stressing me out and I just don't know if I can do this anymore. Unless my business takes off and I can make a fair income from tutoring, it's just not going to work. The worst part is that my husband would have been able to come here for free a couple of years ago. He's French.

[@firstname4337]

maybe you should leave and go to whatever country your husband is from

[@andthatsshannii]

@@firstname4337 I said where my husband is from in the comment. I also said I was considering leaving. Didn’t you read before commenting?

[@GG-hu9dn]

It'll change when tory vipers are OUT!! Don't read nasty gammon troll comments On here? Horrible sad hateful individuals - all of them! Don't stress?!

[@west3918]

@@andthatsshannii cool, fuck off there then

[@nicktankard1244]

Can your husband support himself in the UK? I don’t know what to think about this new law. On one hand you can’t put price on love. But on the other hand marriage is the easiest way to get into the country. I tried immigrating to the UK in the past and it’s bloody hard to get a visa. So putting restrictions on who can come into the country makes some sense to me. Immigration by marriage always annoyed me a bit. Maybe I’m jealous because it’s a super easy way to get into any wealthy country that way. And I come from a poor country and wanted to escape desperately. I spent several years trying to get in via the regular work related channels. Eventually I was able to get a work visa to Germany.

[@theshyguitarist4536]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but at 4:13 that gross salary figure of £34,963 is stated by the ONS as the "median" and not the "average", which are separate stats. Both are measures of central tendency, but the average (calculated by taking the sum of all salaries and dividing by the population) tends to be skewed upwards by high income earners. So the average salary is likely higher than this quoted figure. That said, the median is probably a better representation of the average joe (the median is defined as the 50th percentile, or the literal middle of the salaries if they were organised in a huge list in numerical order).

[@theshyguitarist4536]

All that said, I would be interested to dig deeper into how the ONS gather data as it does seem personally surprising to me that a median UK salary is as high as that. This might have more to do with my area and social network though which doesn't represent the population at large.

[@been2711]

I think using the mode would be a better representation. The income that most brits are on.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

50 percentile gives the figure of £23,800 per annum. 75 percentile is £38,800. 30 percentile is £19,000. Most of the country do not earn anything close to the average salary.

[@theshyguitarist4536]

@geraldmcmullon2465 What source is this from? (Note: I'm not saying you're wrong, I just have multiple sources with conflicting info and I'm trying to create this mini database of different figures and sources). One obvious thing I'm finding is that some take the full population (including those part time or zero hours contract), others only take full time employees, others take the hourly pay and convert it to annual pay regardless of the hours worked per week. It's confusing as hell to reach an agreement because no-one can agree what data to collect 🫠 Some of its political cherrypicking some of it's just innocent differences in approaches.

[@chrissouthgate4554]

It always surprised me that whenever the newspapers quoted a pay scale that no-one I knew was on it!

[@annepoitrineau5650]

Also, contrary to what the far right propagate, the largest families in the UK are not of foreign origins, they are British. Moreover, the Guardian had an article yesterday telling us there were more empty houses than people in need of housing (yesterday's 25/12/2023) . Of course, they might be sub-standard or in the wrong places, but it shows that the UK housing situation is chaotic and needs government intervention. Better local government, but they have no money.

[@wWvwvV]

There is not such a thing as illegal immigration in the UK. The UK has cut of legal paths for asylum seekers. The UK has stopped to processs asylum seekers applications and has built up a big backlog like in the NHS. The plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will also not be implemented as it is unreasonable. The Tory govn paid mio to Rwanda for nothing. There wont be a single flight. Airlines don't want to be negatively associated. They all denied. There are no planes to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

[@bennjamann]

£29,000 is very high for most people, I’ve never earned that much in my life, and neither has anyone I know

[@bennjamann]

Who tf do you know earning that much working in a shop or something outside London? And blowing smoke up who’s backside exactly?

[@87CVH]

​​@@Believer3_master degree grad architect assistants don't earn that even in london

[@tobynorris]

@@Believer3_ How much does London skew that though?

[@charliefen]

@@87CVHreally? See I'm doubting that. The reason why is because £27,000 and up is what they expect you to earn to start repaying student loans. Anything under that and you don't repay 😂

[@87CVH]

@@charliefen yeah most grad architects don't earn enough to pay their loan back until years after qualification and thats if they find a job... (esp with the current cost of living) many are having to house share as they cant afford 1 bed rent ... unfortunately lengthy study / high skill doesn't equal high pay

[@ronoldcross8189]

They got it from the Ogre under the Old London Bridge.

[@clivemortimore8203]

Bone to pick with you, how dare a Yankie immigrant make me laugh so much. 😄😄😄😄 Thank you Evan and Happy Xmas.

[@a.j.7795]

Found my way back to this video as the salary threshold for the skilled worker visa of £38.7K will come into effect next month. Sadly, no backpedaling in sight for that and it will most likely mean that my stay in the UK will end next January when my current visa runs out.

[@davidjohnson5635]

We’re running into the same problem. My wife got a job for 26k on the HPI visa in February before they finalized the insane 38.7k number. We’re probably going to have to leave in 18ish months because we can’t imagine her work giving her a 50% wage increase over that same time. Company loses out on a competent employee and we lose out on living in a country we like far more than the one we came from ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@lookafternumber1]

It should be Illegal to have more than one home. So everyone can have a home. You present it well❤ £29000 is not average Salary in UK I think £23000 is. People don't find a job so it is Immigrants' fault. NHS going down the drain It is Immigrants' fault. Rising Living cost is Immigrants' fault. Economy going dow the drain is Immigrants fault. It is Not Immigrants' fault It is actually the people who are running this country, it is their fault because they don't care about the people they just want stay in power so they can manupulate the system to get rich themselves Nationally and Internationally. Rishi Sunaks Father-in-Law is A Billionair but he Needs Rishi to Support Genocide of Palestinian so they can clean Gaza because they found Gas and Oil there so Rishi's Father-in-Law can get the oil. Win Win for the rich and powerful. They have no concern for people of UK they are just in it for themselves. They all stick together the BBC and the powerful. This is why yoy will never find out the truth. Maintream media Brainwashing people with lies, they always blame everything on Immigrants. Sad but True.

[@kev2034]

I don't disagree but the Tories would drag their feet at that suggestion. A progressive tax where you pay more per house you own, so single home owners will pay the lowest on their property might be easier to gain general support for. Everything else you've said though, right on the money. If immigration was actually a problem they'd shut it down tomorrow but they haven't, Brexit just opened up the doors for more immigration from outside of the EU so the wealthy elite can benefit from cheap labour and have a scapegoat to point to when anyone questions why shit is tough for the average person.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

How many years in employment, say as a teacher do you have to work to get enough for £29K or £38K in a year or so. 30% of the UK don't earn £19K, 50% don't earn £23.8K and 75% don't earn £38.8K. How many from the UK apply to bring in a foreign national as spouse? According to the National Statistics office about 52K per year 2006-2015 when it was published in 2017. Most of the 750k immigrants are the huge rise of foreign students who come here for 5 to 7 years, pay inflated fees and go back home having spent a fortune to live here and contributed to the NHS and GDP. This is a success story as they a funding higher education in the UK and paying to fund the NHS.

[@GeekySquidoo]

You could argue that they actually wanted to raise it to £29,000 in the first place. But, as frequently happens, they throw a really high number out there, so when they propose the number they want to use, it looks reasonable by comparison. In terms of the average salary, it’s possible the guardian is using statistics which either don’t include the inflated London salaries or are compensating for them. National minimum wage is around £22k p/a for a full time 37.5hrs a week job. So the figures of £27k being an average would track because while national minimum wage has risen, most salaries have not risen along with it. This country is such a mess! It’s only taken 13 years for the conservatives to realise austerity doesn’t work. The experts told them that back in 2010, but what do the experts know! 😭

[@nicktankard1244]

Is illegal immigration a big problem in the UK? I don’t know the numbers but what percentage of immigration to the UK is illegal? I thought it’s a pretty low number compared to the US. Legal immigration is good if it’s managed carefully and not overdone like in Canada for example

[@laramorrison5973]

yes it has been a major political sticking point in elections here for years and is the main reason why Brexit was proposed and eventually voted for. The majority of them are asylum seekers/refugees entering via dangerous small boats across the English Channel from France which has a very high fatality rate. In the past year, there were 52,530 illegal migrants detected entering the UK, 17% increase on 2022.

[@nicktankard1244]

@@laramorrison597353k is not a small number but if I remember correctly the total immigration was at least 10x of that. So the number of illegal immigrants is less than 10%? That can’t have that big of an impact on the economy. So if you stop all illegal immigration it will reduce the total impact by 10%. Not sure if that’s super significant in the grand scheme of things

[@nicktankard1244]

@@laramorrison5973 the UK has 67 million people. Surely 53k people coming to it illegally won’t have a big impact. So I was wondering how much of it was a real problem and how much was just political populism.

[@laramorrison5973]

@@nicktankard1244 inflation, recession, Brexit, strains within the UK relations e.g. calls for Irish reunification and Scottish independence, cuts to devolved government budgets, ageing population, COVID and a health service on the verge of collapse have all fueled racist and anti immigration sentiment among sectors of the population here. Illegal migrantion is costing the government significant funds which are required elsewhere. But it has mostly just been used by the right wing who feel that their idea of what the UK was/should be is under threat as it looks more and more likely that Scotland and Northern Ireland will leave in the coming decades and as the monarchy becomes more and more redundant/unpopular to encourage extremist and racist policies and public sentiment which is forcing the government to respond. It is more of a social issue than economic.

[@nicktankard1244]

@@laramorrison5973 that makes sense. It’s not much better here in Canada. All the same problems basically

[@molybdomancer195]

Evan Not all foreign people are even foreign! My grandson is a British citizen through my daughter but he was born in Tokyo. So he’s a foreign born Brit

[@Israphella777]

I was dying for a video listen to, and Evan provided🙌🏻

[@wglim100]

thank you for saying what is on my mind. I am an international student in the uk, the audacity that the government have to accuse legal migrants for using up taxpayer dollars is insulting and plain disrespectful. I paid before I came not jst for student visa but NHS surcharged for the number of years I study in the UK (not to mention I am a med student so I technically pay to work for the NHS during placement) and have an understanding when I apply for my visa that I do not have any right to any of the benefits within the UK. I have to proof I have enough money in my bank account to fund myself and any dependents that comes with me to the UK (living expenses + housing) and to leave once my visa expires. Please do tell me, which part of this entire thing includes using up tax payer's money?

[@physis8981]

That natives leave an area and that makes prices go down in area calling it a good counterpoint is bad, they will have to move somewhere, prices increase there. It also makes it worse for those people who move because they will probably have to commute for longer, which obviously is bad for quality of life.

[@canonicalgio7837]

working salary is minimum wage which is around 19k

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

£11.44 from April 2024 so £23795 if you can find work at all.

[@Hession0Drasha]

They don't say it out loud, but the only 2 reasons i can think of for this style of policy, is to encourage people to work in the uk, but then retire in their home country. That or encourage people who come to the UK, to marry into the local population, and not form cultural ghettos. I don't support it, but that's the only logical reasons i can come up with, outside of creulty for creulty's sake.

[@been2711]

What is a cultural ghetto?

[@colinmorrison5119]

It's a community.

[@222o-u3t]

the duality of the british meathead on what a ‘culture’ is in these replies is shocking

[@upfulsoul826]

I think £18.6K is the annual salary for minimum wage workers in the UK. So £29K is way above that.

[@evan]

Minimum wage is not average wage tho so

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

£18,600 is at the 30 percentile by income. 30% of those earning an income don't reach that level of earnings. Minimum wage from April 2024 is £11.44 or £23,795 per annum which brings it to the 50 percentile point of 2020/2021. At the minimum wage might have some sense, but not when 50% of the population fail to earn that.. I have not seen figures for this year (2023).

[@meredith1313]

Gahhh my partner and I have been going crazy because this is literally impacting me right now because I’m waiting on my spouse visa to be approved 😅 this has been an emotional rollercoaster and flurry of texting family members to create plan B and plan C just in case the visa gets rejected from all this chaos.

[@bluceree7312]

Lots of undeclared, cash-in-hand work happening. And finding jobs through a "cousin", or even "no-shows" in some cases. It's not only in the UK, and actually, its probably a lot more prevalent in the countries where immigrants come from. I would not declare anything I was able to, alas, I live in a _civilised_ society.

[@MattOatesUK]

The median household income typically where everyone on the low side its two adults working is 35k a year. The number you quoted from ONS is fulltime professionals. Most of the country arent even in fulltime work!

[@W417on]

Not finished watching yet, so maybe its discussed or someone will correct me, but i believe why they're saying 29k is more, is because the majority of the uk is on minimum wage, or just over. Like for me personally 29k is way more than i earn 😅 and pretty sure thats the same in majority of sectors

[@evan]

but the median is 35k so 50% earn more 50% earn less

[@colinmorrison5119]

@@evan It's £32.9k in Northern Ireland, 6% less.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

@@evan no that is average. 75 percentile is £38,800 (2020/2021 figures). £23,800 is 50 percentile. ONS.

[@JackDrewitt]

Yes median gross annual earnings for FULL-TIME employees was £34,963 in April 2023, BUT some workers are part-time so that brings it down to an average of £29,669 UK wide for all those earning, ALSO once you factor in the jobless of 4.3% of over 16s it goes to £27,720, so yes £29k is more than most earn by about £1300pa. 4:44 Its crazy how some can be so confident they are proving someone wrong when they have such poor reading comprehension and reasoning. Also worth saying Wales is £27,852, East Midlands £27,782, Yorkshire £27,648, and North East England £26,959 before you even consider jobless.

[@BenDBeast]

In my opinion the best way to tackle illegal immigration is to make legal immigration more accessible we can keep a heavily modified version of the current system for already educated migrants and have a separate system for lower skilled migrants and refugees where we can provide temporary basic accommodation and give them access to education on important things such as language, cultural values and specialised skills it would allows to direct the flow of immigrants away from the streets and social housing and instead allow the government to encourage immigrants to specialise in roles that will help fill in the gaps in our economy. Ultimately most illegal immigrants move due to desperation and the desire for a better life and the vast majority would prefer to doe so under a legal framework we have already proven trying to stop immigration does not work so why not try helping both the British economy and immigrants at the same time.

[@kaz5824]

The most bizzare part of this immigration salary hike is that my partner receives PIP, which means we are relatively exempt from proving a definitive minimum income. Considering the tories seem to be generally uh, anti social services in general, the fact that this has remained intact is surprising to me (but I suspect it may change). Who knew the loophole would be disability????

[@dangriffiths5638]

The rights of those deemed socially vulnerable (health, mental, etc.) and are receiving related benefits, their human rights will always trump over the government’s right to reject - if someone in that position had need to take an appeal to the international human rights court, they would win by default due to their ‘vulnerability and personal needs’ being viewed as higher than that of the government. Hence long-term sick/disabled and in receipt of benefits - the income requirement is not required. So, this means that in these cases, the government accepts that the spouse/partner and the British partner can live on the benefit income (which would be increased to cover two people). Without even looking at what the total Annual benefit income would be for a couple for each year, it’s considerably lower than the 29k and definitely the 38k figures that are now to be forthcoming - yet these new income thresholds are, apparently, what is needed for a couple to financially survive. Yet, a couple on benefits, are accepted to be financially viable on approx half that/those new figures … just further proves they really don’t know what they are doing or even why/can justify

[@Jess140594]

Do you know what p*sses me off? When children are going hungry because their parents are struggling so much with the cost of living. The shameful thing is those kids struggling arent eligible for free school meals because their household income is "high enough" yet it's absolutely not. I've paid for some of the kids to eat, where i work, because hearing them get declined for food because they dont have enough money absolutely stings my heart. All the while the biggest scroungers are in government getting subsidiaries for food, travel etc and the everyday folk are finding it so hard to get by. Vile Tory w⚓️s

[@RoshyGT]

I love this guy and I only came across his channel today.

[@bellshooter]

Good rant! As a lifelong Conservative I have finally reached the limit of my tolerance. I will seek a more sensible alternative at the next election, erring towards the Green or Democratic candidate, as nobody sensible should vote for Keir Starmar.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

If all sensible candidates went independent we could have the sensible national party forming a UK government. LOL.

[@colinmorrison5119]

@@geraldmcmullon2465 First Past The Post voting ensures that never happens. If the referendum on proportional representation had passed, the Brexit disaster would never have happened, because Cameron wouldn't have been PM.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

@@colinmorrison5119 I know, but it is Christmas and I have nothing else to wish for LOL.

[@EmmaCruises]

THE MODE 🤣

[@EdaliaDayCreative]

I don’t know the actual statistics but in all circles i move in 29k is regarded as a very well paid job and no one i know except my rich siblings earn above that

[@kelugu3776]

You're killing me with the accents.😂😂😅

[@anastasiaaleinik8163]

Well, I do not know about the average, but NHS top of Band 4 (it is a junior manager, team leader, discharge co-ordinator, a nurse…so you have it as a reference point what peoples jobs are) is 27,596…so for those people there is no chance of bringing a family member or a spouse in, also a qualified nurse specialist can’t jump above band 5, so all of those numbers are so bizarre to me, where did they get that average from?!😂😂😂

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

£38,800 is the 75 percentile by income level for 2020-2021. That means 75% of income earners are on a lower salary. ONS figures are published for download. Not that MPs and the popular media are cable of reading them.

[@Trax777]

I hate this government, so stupid and incompetent it makes me sick!

[@clarabenn879]

It’s “like tearing off a plaster” or “ripping off a plaster”. We do say that!

[@GG-hu9dn]

In a country where 100k a Yr is not enough to have a home.. how is 38/28k gonna make any difference?! I can't believe how bad it is??

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

The Tories have worked really hard to get to this level of governing.

[@davewright9313]

They only lowered it to stop a legal challenge. Up in 2025 to 38,700 I will not vote labour unless they say there scrapping it.

[@222o-u3t]

you better not be voting at all mate… don’t need another tory government thanks to you.

[@lightsalt8829]

Me: Crying while still struggling to find the right visa while government tries to make it harder for me to get in and live with my partner because I am American

[@bapluda]

My first salary when I moved to the UK was 26K GBP, back in 2001, as a junior Software Engineer. It was a good salary back then. I doubt you can live in Cambridge with that salary anymore. I feel sorry for skilled workers who will have to compete with cheap labor at 29K GBP, while that is not a bad salary for low skilled jobs, it's not worth studying hard to get payed that.

[@clarissagafoor5222]

Average professional workers salary here where I live is around 43,000 UK pounds a year! Just how low are UK wages? I`m living in a place where many people run away to the UK because reasons btw!

[@yoitsgunattack]

I don’t understand the narrative that the conservatives are so super anti foreigner yet the uk which is really a tiny island nation has the 4th most immigrants per year. Keep in mind that is globally over 200 countries and they have been in power for a long time now. This year alone we had over 1% of our population become new immigrants. Japan for reference has a total immigrant population of 0.2%. As a percentage we got 5 times more in a single year than japans total. And the uk and Japan are very comparable. Both are island nations of empires that peaked and are in decline. Like more or less that’s your view but the idea that they are “anti” while being 4th in the world is an oxymoron btw I am saying this as someone who EXCLUSIVELY votes third party because I hate both bloody sides. And if I am gonna pretend my vote matters I am gonna choose the one that 100% isn’t gonna be the reason we get fucked over.

[@DarknessFalls24]

Dude youre brilliant. As a BRITISH BORN indian i am happy that youre in MY COUNTRY.

[@222o-u3t]

“brexit will only be racist to EU immigrants! we’re safe” also brexit:

[@DarknessFalls24]

@@222o-u3t yeah the way I've been treated since Brexit is despicable.

[@222o-u3t]

@@DarknessFalls24 sadly eliminating non-white ethnoreligious demographics is all it was about in the end.

[@MyshelafromTanelorn]

Im not sure if pwople understands what average means, average is not the minimum at all, average means: I earn 1000 you earn 3000 Averahe is 2000 I still only earn 1000. It means putting together rich with poor and then dividing it to give you a sum that means basically nothing

[@Grimfang999]

The thing is, I somewhat get the mindset where you may want less immigration, legal or illegal. But... wages are a really arbitrary way to distinguish who can come or not. The best way to do it is base immigration on number of available jobs, but... oh wait we do that already! So to reduce dependancy on immigration, the economy needs complete restricturing for that. Automation is one option alongside some really strict policies. Frankly, it would be really hard. So... they need to figure out if its really worth all that.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

Immigrant figures have the headline of 750,000. But UK Gov have encouraged a huge rise in foreign students who pay inflated course fees and have to have funding for their whole course and not allowed to have a job to support themselves for the 5 to 7 years of study. The 52000 who apply as spouses to come to the UK per year is small.

[@andrewdowniephd]

A plaster is correct. A great presentation again.

[@JQ-999]

What about the exodus out of the UK? The British talent went abroad years ago. The UK is just first world poverty now!

[@seanmcguinness6669]

Incredulity & disbelief, nice job of breaking it all down 👍

[@thescrewfly]

Not sure when exactly it changed, but it definitely used to be Merry Christmas when I was young.

[@tomnicholson2115]

Same here, always a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Being happy at Christmas is fine but being merry is better 😉

[@chrissouthgate4554]

A good argument regarding the dangers of immigration is the Tory Government, and yes I am including Boris Johnson & Dominic Raab in this.

[@jonochristian2256]

and a very merry christmas to you sir.keep on doing what you do.

[@patdbean]

4:24 yes, the average wage is about 35K before tax. The living wage is about 21k that is the point that if you fall below you can get some in wirk benifits. In the uk about 40% of households get benifits from the state , and most of those are IN work. The question is dose net imigration of 500k a year depress wages? I think it dose, because in 2000 the average weekly before tax pay was 475 pounds a week, before tax. To have kept up with inflatiton in 2023 that would have to be 775 pounds a week , but it is actually about 675. So since mass imigration started (500k+ a year now) the spending power of the average wage has done nothing but FALL.

[@VinoVeritas_]

Your point might be valid if the UK didn't have National Living Wage legislation.

[@patdbean]

@@VinoVeritas_ but what dose that national living wage legislation DO? In 2022/3 the UK paid out 230 billion in benefits 60% of that being paid to people IN work.

[@VinoVeritas_]

@@patdbean National Minimum Wage legislation allows governments to prevent any supposed wage suppression. As for in-work benefits, you do understand that it's only necessary because huge corporations don't pay their employees enough to live on, right?

[@patdbean]

@@VinoVeritas_ but, quite clearly minimum wage legislation doesn't stop pay falling. Because the spending power of average pay Has Done nothing but fall since the late 1990s. Yes, it may well have been worse without it. But why do you think it was introduced ? Since 2000 immigration has pushed what would otherwise have been a stable population UP from 58 million to over 67 million. You can not deliberately introduce that amount of immigration and population increase, and act all "surprised" when the spending power of the average wage dose nothing but FALL for over 20 years. I don't think unemployment itself is the real issue (yes we have 5 million non-working adults) but we also have well over 10 million people, who work to be in poverty, and claim as much or more in benefits than they take home in pay. It is not about the bottom 20% of earners , they are supported by benefits anyway, and always have been. It is those 20% either size of the mid point, who have spent the last 20 years getting screwed by mass immigration.

[@peterrandolph4672]

Hi guys, I am a BRITISH BORN CITIZEN, with a FOREIGN wife and a ONE YEAR OLD child stuck abroad. Seriously this new updated rule is just as ridiculous as the original. I have been on many jobsites to look up jobs to apply for next year, to get out of this pithy agency job and there is nothing in my skillset for £29,000 a year. How.many jobs will I have to work for X amount of hours to earn that much or more? I don't know when or if this £29,000 will start. I really hope it doesn't, but if it does not until 2025 then I can get my wife and 1 YEAR OLD son here on £18,500 year threshold.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

Minimum wage in the UK goes to £11.44 in April. For 40 hours you should get £23795 still far short of the changes to come in by Spring. Getting any job is not easy even if here full time searching for a job particularly if wanting to be near relatives and family.

[@janpetersen7440]

With the large immigration UK has (not exactly a tiger economy) I often think - is the UK workforce so poorly trained that it cannot be used for completely ordinary jobs, you have to import from outside to get filled. 🤔

[@skoop651]

Mass immigration is bad, simple as that

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

It requires money to train the work force. UK goverment doesn't seem to want to invest in it There're also seasonal jobs which are incredibly difficult to fill without migrant workers. I don't think UK work force could replace them There's also the fact that (some) migrants are willing to work for less if it means living in a developed country. Difficult to compete with them

[@Aloh-od3ef]

More people are in university education now than any time prior. This would suggest the UK Workforce is highly trained and why British people don’t have trouble getting jobs abroad. The vast majority of migrants in the last 20 years have been filling low skilled jobs! Companies will hire migrants because the will work for minimum wage. This keeps wages low across the sector. Making it less appealing to British people who are less likely to work for a low wage. Resulting in a demand for more immigrants. It’s a vicious circle 😂

[@Aloh-od3ef]

@@angelikaskoroszyn8495why should a government pay for qualifications. That are being demanded by private profit making companies? Surely the companies should be training their own employees to their own standard?

[@janpetersen7440]

@@Aloh-od3ef Yes, it can be called a vicious circle in particular if the highly educated in the UK travel abroad to work and are 'replaced' by low-educated immigrants. It is not connected - socio-economically.

[@Wokerati]

the first threshold was only to keep happy the tory boy Jenrick ( Rishi fishy allied) so he wouldn’t quit his position but he still did and then the government didn’t see the point to keep it then u-turned …

[@Qzak1]

Hey Evan, it’s be great if you provided your sources in the video description for where you found the information! Great vid, thanks for making it.

[@Nurgle1977]

I would go further in the other direction, and offer benefits for people, to fill jobs we need filled, for example nurses.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

At a recent visit to the the eye clinic at Addenbrookes all the staff I came across, including the consults had non-English accents. The team in surgery at Papworth were from Korean, the staff in critical care from three continents without these highly skilled staff the shortages and waiting times would be much higher. Why they stay here with the strict terms of employment and the attitude of the Government I don't know.

[@Wozza365]

Tories don't want to fill them jobs to the point where there's no queue. They want to dismantle the NHS piece by piece while milking for every penny

[@RichardGadsden]

The median individual income (ie including pensioners and non-working adults) is below £29,000 - the most recent figure I can find is the 2020-21 figures ("Distribution of median and mean income and tax by age range and sex") says that the median income before tax is £26,300. This would include people with no work income. People might be paid more now, but I doubt incomes would have gone up enough to exceed £29,000. I suppose this is the relevant number for people who potentially could marry - people without a job could still marry, but they could not bring their partner to the UK as they wouldn't meet the earnings threshhold. The Guardian expressed itself wrongly, this isn't median earnings, it's median income - including all those with no earnings.

[@fionahealey9422]

Please don't fall for the illegal immigration rhetoric. Entering another country and applying for asylum is not illegal under international law. Its easy language and widely used, but it's misleading

[@zukodude487987]

I think Brexit was a bad idea.

[@adamjo914]

£38,700 is two adults working 34 hours per week on minimum wage.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

Minimum wages goes up to £11.44 per hour in April. £23795 per annum for 40 hours per week. The majority of jobs are 40, some 48 and office jobs 37.5 hours. Never hear of any job for 34 hours per week. Part time is 20 and too many are needing two and three jobs to get by.

[@adamjo914]

@@geraldmcmullon2465 I accounted for the MW increase. Well aware of the increase as I am on minimum wage. Majority of minimum wage jobs are Zero Hours contracts. My original post was to highlight the minimum work a couple would need to put in to meet the threshold.

[@MrRawMonkey]

They need to keep it high to keep out those that will claim benefits despite working. Australia has the right idea.

[@wolfen210959]

Are you really that dumb, Evan already stated that no immigrant can claim any benefit at all, it's just smoke and mirrors.

[@MrTrialandError]

@10:37 time to do a political compass test for a YT video? 👀

[@cassandragough]

Yes, the expression is rip the plaster off.

[@xereeto]

I've very rarely heard "happy Christmas" up here in Scotland! It's always been "merry"... maybe an English thing?

[@MatthewNJDavis]

Thank you for the video. Given the argument of immigration improving the economy, would you agree with the idea of having a minimal income equivalent to at least the nominal each citizen receives from taxpayers? I.E. roads, hospitals, schools, police, bin collection, and so on?

[@reet7060]

Soooo awful I know so many premed students who have been fucked over by this

[@willm156]

I think demographics are also important in understanding why this shit still sucks, tbh. The average age in America is 38.7 (US Census) and in the UK it is 40.7 (ONS), pretty close; yet the average working age in America is in a range from 27 to 35, whilst it remains around the national average at 35-49 in the UK. A starting salary post graduation, is around 31,000 in London, yet 25,000 in the Midlands / the North, and drastically lower still in Scotland and Wales, closer to 22,000 (UK prospects). Younger professionals are also, unless you're blessed to be an engineer, stuck at their starting posts for longer due to older generations staying in their positions and forking money in (e.g. I've worked for two years and have not seen my salary move past 25k, nor my role officially change, and to have saved what I have is a miracle). This new cap still really hurts younger skilled workers and those who are not London or Southern based, who have the love of their life abroad, have fewer savings, and earn less by no fault of their own nor lack of discipline or training. It all just makes me feel so hopeless, it has forced me personally to replan my life, and the cards being so stacked against young people and the territories in tandem right now in several issues, not just with family visas and migration, makes me feel honestly unwelcome in my own home country.

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

Merry Christmas. Happy New. Wishing you a prosperous New Year. But we also now have cards with "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" imported I guess.

[@krystleklearcentral]

They probably included people with zero income to get the average. Most income stats only include people who are working. But if you maybe do it with all people of working age, or even all people, the number would obviously be lower.

[@babaniyi5959]

Seasons greetings

[@israellai]

11:00 HOLY FUCK THAT BOJO VOICE THO???? 🔥🔥