Guidance

Maintenance and accommodation (MAA)

Published 6 December 2013

1. MAA1 Who has to meet the maintenance and accommodation requirements?

The majority of the Rules require applicants to be able to be maintained and accommodated (and any of their dependants) without additional recourse to public funds.

These guidelines deal particularly with appendix FM of the Immigration rules relating to family members. However, much is applicable to persons coming to the UK for temporary purposes.

2. MAA2 Public funds

Public funds page.

There is no objection to the British citizen / settled sponsor receiving any public funds to which he / she is entitled in his / her own right.

Details on current benefit and tax rates (means and non-means tested)

The fact that an applicant may not be eligible to claim public funds is not in itself sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Rules.

An important factor to consider is whether there will be a need for the sponsor to claim additional public funds to support the applicant if leave to enter was granted.

Bear in mind that in some exceptional cases an applicant may be able to claim in their own right the public funds listed. This is either as a result of reciprocal arrangements between the UK and their home country, or as a result of the fact that they will be married to / living with a British citizen / EEA national. Where these exceptional circumstances apply, the applicant should not be treated as having recourse to public funds.

For more detailed guidance on this please read the immigration directorate Instructions, modernised guidance - public funds.

3. MAA3 What if the applicant has been in receipt of public funds during previous stays in the UK?

This does not necessarily mean that an application must be refused. However, this may indicate a failure to observe previous conditions attached to a grant of leave to enter.

4. MAA4 Maintenance: general requirements

With effect from 9 July 2012, the Immigration Rules were amended to introduce a financial requirement to be met by a person applying for leave to enter, leave to remain and indefinite leave to remain in the UK on the basis of their family life with a person who is:

• a British citizen; or
• present and settled in the UK; or
• in the UK with refugee leave or humanitarian protection.

Exceptions to the income threshold element financial requirement are set out in appendix FM and guidance.

For more detailed guidance on this please read the immigration directorate instructions, chapter 8, section FM 1.7A - maintenance.

There is no explicit minimum figure for what represents adequate maintenance. If dependants of the main applicant are going to accompany him / her to the United Kingdom, resources must be available for the whole family unit to be maintained.

The ECO should bear in mind the position taken by the UK Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (UKAIT):

In 2006, the UKAIT in UKAIT 00065 KA and Others (Pakistan), strongly suggested that it would not be appropriate to have immigrant families existing on resources that were less than the Income Support level for a British family of that size.

More information is available on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) website.

If it is more likely than not that the total amount that the applicant and sponsor will have to live on will be below what the income support level would be for a British family of that size, then it may be appropriate to refuse the application on maintenance and accommodation grounds.

For more detailed guidance on this please read the immigration directorate instructions, chapter 8, section FM 1.7A - maintenance.

5. MAA5 What evidence of maintenance is required?

To be satisfy the requirement to be adequately maintained under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules, the applicant must provide the evidence specified in paragraph 12A of the Appendix FM-SE.

For more detailed guidance on this please read the immigration directorate instructions, chapter 8, section FM 1.7A - maintenance.– sub-section 6.

6. MAA6 Accommodation: general requirements

The ECO must be satisfied as to:

• The availability and adequacy of accommodation (see MAA14 below).
• That (where applicable) the permission of the owner of the accommodation has been given
• No additional public funds will be necessary for accommodating the applicant in cases where the sponsor lives in accommodation from public funds. (see guidance on public funds - MAA2)

7. MAA7 Maintenance and accommodation: parent or adult dependant relative

Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules also requires that a person applying to enter the United Kingdom as a parent or settled sponsors’ of an adult depedant relative or adopted child(Paragraph 310) provide specified evidence that they can ‘adequately’ maintain and accommodate without recourse to public funds ( MAA4,5,6).

8. MAA8 Assessing adequate means of maintenance

• For applications from family members under appendix FM of the Immigration Rules promises of third party support will not be accepted. The applicant and their partner must have the required resources under their own control, not somebody else’s.

• Only employment income of the applicant if they are in the UK with permission to work can count towards the requirement to be adequately maintained. Job offers or the applicant’s prospects of employment will not be taken into account.

In calculating whether the applicant can be adequately maintained, the decision maker should follow the following steps:

(a) Establish the sponsor’s and/or applicant’s (if they are in the UK with permission to work) current net income. The net income should be established and if the income varies, an average should be calculated. Income from benefits can be included as income. (b) Establish the sponsor’s current housing costs from the evidence provided. c) Deduct the housing costs from the net income. (d) Calculate how much the sponsor and his family would receive if they were on Income Support. ( e) Compare the sponsor’s net income after deduction of housing costs with the equivalent Income Support rate.

Details on current benefit and tax rates (means and non-means tested)

9. MAA9 Assessing adequate accommodation

The ECO should be satisfied that the accommodation complies with the following requirements:

• it is (or will be) owned or legally occupied for the exclusive use of the couple (see definition in section below); and
• it is capable of accommodating the couple, and any children, without overcrowding as defined in the Housing Act 1985 (see MAA134).

Depending on the circumstances of the case, there may be other relevant factors; for example, the ECO should be satisfied that housing the couple in rented accommodation will not be in breach of any tenancy agreement as regards sub-letting (see below).

10. MAA10 Legally owned or exclusively occupied

The ECO should consider the basis of the availability and security of tenure of the accommodation. Factors to be taken into account will include:

• the ownership of the property and/or the duration of a lease
• whether any lease enables the tenant to sublet to the couple or take them in as lodgers.

If the accommodation is not owned by the couple (or one of them), the Rules require that there be adequate accommodation which is for their exclusive use. This need not be as elaborate as a self-contained flat. It is acceptable for a couple to live in an existing household, for example, that of a parent, uncle, aunt, sibling or friend, as long as they have at least a bedroom for their exclusive use.

If the couple have children with them there must be additional adequate accommodation for them (see MAA134 for maximum numbers of persons allowed).

11. MAA11 Adequacy of accommodation

The ECO’s judgement should be based on the evidence from the applicant. If the ECO is not sure of the credibility of the applicant, he / she should ask to see a letter from the owner of the property (which may be a housing authority, housing association, landlord or a building society). This should confirm particulars of tenure and occupation of the dwelling, together with a description of the accommodation and, if rented, a copy of the lease.

The onus is on the applicant to provide confirmation that there is no objection to an additional resident moving into the accommodation.

12. MAA12 Overcrowding

12.1 Residential housing

The Housing Act 1985 contains statutory definitions of overcrowding in residential housing. The ECO should bear in mind, as Pakistan 2004 UKAIT 000066 says, that adequacy of accommodation must be assessed on an individual basis. It is not enough to equate adequacy with overcrowding.

A house is considered to be overcrowded if 2 persons aged 10 years or more of opposite sexes, who are not living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room. The Act also details the maximum number of people allowed for a given number of rooms or a given room floor area.

Account is taken only of rooms with a floor area larger than 50 square feet and rooms of a type used either as a living room or bedroom.

Rooms such as kitchens or bathrooms are excluded.

Under the Housing Act, the number of people sleeping in accommodation must not exceed the following:

Number of rooms	Maximum number of people allowed
1	2
2	3
3	5
4	7.5
5	10
Each additional room in excess of 5	An additional 2 people

For the purpose of the Act:

• a child under 1 does not count as a person.
• a child aged 1-10 years counts as only half a person.

12.2 Houses in multiple occupation

Separate overcrowding regulations exist for houses in multiple occupation (HMO). These include houses occupied by persons not forming a single household. This wide definition covers not only hotels and hostels but also houses lived in by 2 or more couples of different generations where they do not share common facilities.

Local authorities have the power to serve an overcrowding notice in respect of an HMO to specify the maximum number of people who may sleep per room. The local authority can also set a limit on the number of people in a house, or prevent further new residents, and require the provision of extra facilities.

If an overcrowding notice makes an occupier homeless, the local authority may be forced to provide alternative accommodation under the Housing Act 1985. Such accommodation counts as public funds (see MAA2).

If posts issue guidance to applicants on accommodation, they should make it clear that any qualified body independent of the applicant or sponsor may prepare a report confirming the status of the proposed accommodation, that is, size, occupiers and so on.

Only where overcrowding seems likely, and there is no other way of determining this, should an ECO need to write the local authority or landlord, or ask the applicant to provide such evidence.

The ECO should be aware that some local authorities have objected to providing information on housing standards in immigration applications.

Letters to local authorities should be written in the following terms:

Name of applicant

The above-named has applied for ……. to come to the United Kingdom for settlement as ……. of ……. whose address is given as …….

Before I can grant the entry clearance asked for, I am required by the Immigration Rules to be satisfied that the applicant can maintain and accommodate himself / herself, or be maintained and accommodated without recourse to any of those public funds mentioned in the Immigration Rules, i.e. housing under Part III of the Housing Act 1985 and income support, family credit, council tax benefit and housing benefit under Part VII of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.

From the information I have it appears that the address at which the applicant says he / she is going to live is a house in multiple occupation within the meaning of the Housing Act 1985. It would be helpful to me to know whether your authority would regard the arrival of the applicant as causing overcrowding and whether you would consequently have to provide emergency housing under part III of the Housing Act 1985 if the applicant were to remain living at the address.

I should emphasise that I am seeking your voluntary help. If, for any reason you are unable to provide the help I am seeking, I would be grateful if you could let me know as soon as possible so that my decision in the case should not be unnecessarily delayed.