Most people don’t realise that it is not only people applying to come to the UK who have to pay fees to the Home Office. A significant number of people who are already in the country legally are subject to what I believe is an increasingly unreasonable fee regime.
This affects anyone who has “limited leave to remain”. They must renew their legal status, often as frequently as every 2.5 years. As well as the Home Office fee they have to pay the NHS surcharge of £400 per person per year. The political justification for the surcharge is that those subject to it have not “contributed” – but they are already here paying tax like everyone else. For a family with three children that’s more than £10,000 every 30 months, or £4,000 a year for ten years, until they have been here long enough to apply for “indefinite leave to remain”.
Many fees have risen tenfold in the last decade. The Home Office argues that, this way, migrants can fund the entire borders and immigration system without the need for British taxpayer contributions. But the government publishes the actual cost to the Home Office of processing of each type of application, so we know there’s a profit from each fee. For ‘Leave To Remain’, the profit is £900, for ‘Indefinite Leave’ it is £2,000.
A decade ago, fees were much more affordable and our immigration system was no less functional. Other European countries have much lower fees. But the Home Office has rejected even the smallest concessions to fairness suggested in an April 2019 report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration on the Home Office's politics and practices on immigration fees.
Most people in this situation are already poor, and many are under “no recourse to public funds” conditions that mean they can’t access benefits. They end up with several jobs to feed and house their families while also saving for these huge fees. Many parents have to choose between feeding their children and maintaining their right to stay. Others are never able to claim their rights - priced out of citizenship, often priced out of legal status. Most in this situation are women, especially BAME women.
Many families suffer mental and physical health problems as a direct result of the financial pressure. Thousands of couples and families are being kept apart by the extortionate costs. The stress puts severe and lasting strain on relationships.
One lady, who must pay to renew her legal status every two and a half years, says: “We are living below the poverty line in a developed nation while trying to save money for the home office fees, but still never afford to meet the target. Everyone I have spoken to had to borrow money to pay or delayed to pay the fees for the home office.”
My question to the new government’s Home Office is - how about a fair system that cares for people, not profit?