Adequate Maintenance: Disability Benefit Exemption

What Is the Adequate Maintenance Test?

The standard financial requirement for a UK Spouse visa is a gross annual income of £29,000, for applications made on or after 11 April 2024. Paragraph E-ECP.3.3 of Appendix FM provides an alternative where the sponsoring partner receives one of a list of disability and carer benefits.

Two things about that paragraph are commonly misreported, and Rowan got both wrong before this re-check.

First, whose benefit counts. The rule says "the applicant's partner must be receiving one or more of the following". That is the sponsor. For a child applying under paragraph E-ECC.2.3, it is the parent's partner. A benefit received by the applicant themselves, or by a child in the household, does not open this route.

Second, it is not a lower income figure. There is no alternative threshold in pounds per year. The published guidance replaces the fixed figure with a weekly comparison against Income Support. Whether that is easier to meet than £29,000 depends entirely on housing costs and household size.

The equivalent provisions are at paragraph E-LTRP.3.3 for an extension and paragraph E-ECC.2.3 or E-LTRC.2.3 for a child. The guidance also states that adequate maintenance is not a requirement at all on the 10-year partner and parent routes, on the basis of private life under Appendix Private Life, or outside the rules on exceptional circumstances.

Which Benefits Qualify?

Paragraph E-ECP.3.3(a) lists fourteen. The sponsoring partner must be receiving one or more of them. Rowan previously listed six, which omitted the armed forces payments and every one of the Scottish payments.

• Disability Living Allowance
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
• Attendance Allowance
• Carer's Allowance
• Personal Independence Payment
• Armed Forces Independence Payment, or Guaranteed Income Payment under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
• Constant Attendance Allowance, Mobility Supplement or War Disablement Pension under the War Pensions Scheme
• Police Injury Pension
• Child Disability Payment (Scotland)
• Adult Disability Payment (Scotland)
• Carer's Support Payment (Scotland)
• Pension Age Disability Payment (Scotland)
• Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance (Scotland)

The five Social Security Scotland payments were added to the guidance on 18 March 2025. They matter because the Scottish equivalents replaced the England and Wales benefits for many claimants in Scotland, and a list that omits them will look like a refusal where none is due.

The list is closed. A benefit not on it does not open this route, however disability-related it may be. Rowan does not publish a list of non-qualifying benefits, because the rule works by inclusion: if it is not in the fourteen above, the £29,000 requirement applies.

How the Adequate Maintenance Test Works

The published guidance sets out a formula that decision makers must use, and must show in any refusal letter — a requirement the Upper Tribunal imposed in Ahmed (benefits: proof of receipt: evidence) Bangladesh [2013] UKUT 84 (IAC):

A – B ≥ C

• A is net weekly income, after income tax and National Insurance contributions
• B is weekly housing costs — what has to be spent on accommodation
• C is the amount of Income Support an equivalent British family of that size could receive

Everything is weekly. Where income varies, a weekly mean average is used. Where a weekly figure works out to part of a penny, the guidance says to round down.

What Counts As Income (A)

The guidance says to include all net income currently received, including benefits currently received to which the person is entitled. That includes the qualifying disability benefit itself. Rowan previously said Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment are excluded from this calculation; that was wrong.

Two things are excluded:

• Third party support. The guidance says promises of support from a third party cannot be counted, because they are vulnerable to a change in that person's circumstances or in the relationship. The exception is support permitted under paragraph 1(b) of Appendix FM-SE — for example a gift of cash savings already held by the applicant or sponsor for at least 6 months and under their control, maintenance payments from a former partner, or an academic maintenance grant or stipend.
• Future entitlements. An applicant applying for entry clearance may say they will be able to claim benefits in their own right once in the UK. The guidance states that any potential future entitlement after arrival does not count.

Where cash savings are relied on, a weekly equivalent figure is added. Under paragraph 12B of Appendix FM-SE all permitted income sources and cash savings can be combined.

What Is Deducted (B)

Only housing costs. The guidance is explicit that personal debt, including loans and credit card debt, is not taken into account.

The Income Support Comparison (C)

The 2026/27 weekly Income Support personal allowances published on GOV.UK are:

• Couple, both aged 18 or over: £150.15
• Single person aged 25 or over: £95.55
• Single person under 25, or lone parent under 18: £75.65
• Each dependent child: £87.88
• Family or lone parent premium: £20.22

Rates change every April, and the guidance directs decision makers to use the rates applying at the date of their decision — not at the date of application. The current figures are in the benefit and pension rates published on GOV.UK.

The earlier figures on this page, £90.50 for a single person and £142.25 for a couple, were out of date and have been replaced.

Evidence Required

Paragraph 12 of Appendix FM-SE deals with proving the exemption itself. Paragraph 12A deals with the income. They ask for different things.

Proving The Benefit (Paragraph 12)

• Official documentation from the Department for Work and Pensions, Social Security Scotland or the Veterans Agency, confirming the current entitlement and the amount currently received
• At least one personal bank statement from the 12-month period before the date of application, showing that payment going into the account

Proving The Income (Paragraph 12A)

• Employment: a letter from the employer confirming the employment, the gross annual salary and the salary after income tax and National Insurance, how long the job has been held and the type of employment; payslips covering the 6 months before the application, or the shorter period the job has been held; and personal bank statements covering the same period
• Self-employment or a limited company: the evidential requirements of paragraphs 7, 9 and 19 of Appendix FM-SE apply, as they do for the standard financial requirement
• Other benefits and non-employment income: paragraph 10 applies. For benefits, the guidance confirms that documentation from either HM Revenue and Customs or the Department for Work and Pensions is acceptable
• Cash savings: personal bank statements showing at least the amount relied on held throughout the 6 months before the application, in the name of the person or of the person and their partner jointly, plus a declaration of the source of the savings
• Housing costs: paragraph 12A(f) requires the monthly housing and council tax costs for the accommodation in which the family lives or will live

Notice what is not on this list: a household expenses breakdown. Rowan previously suggested writing one. The rule asks for housing and council tax costs, not a budget of general living expenses, because the Income Support comparison is what stands in for those.

At Extension and Settlement

The adequate maintenance route runs through the whole 5-year partner route: entry clearance under paragraph E-ECP.3.3, an extension under paragraph E-LTRP.3.3, and indefinite leave to remain at the end of it. The guidance states the condition plainly: the requirement at settlement is adequate maintenance except when the applicant is on the 5-year partner route and their partner is no longer in receipt of one of the specified benefits.

So if the partner stops receiving the qualifying benefit — a reassessment, a change in condition, a move onto a benefit not on the list — the next application in the sequence is assessed against the standard income threshold of £29,000 instead. See also the English language requirements and visa fees guide for other aspects of the application.

How The Arithmetic Behaves

Housing Costs Drive The Result

Because the formula deducts housing costs before the comparison, two households with identical incomes can land on opposite sides of it. The published guidance gives a worked example: a sponsor with a wife and two children, weekly net income of £460.17, arrives at a figure of £310.17 after housing costs, against an Income Support comparison of £246.36. The guidance emphasises that its examples show the method rather than current rates.

Who Holds The Benefit Is Decisive

A benefit received by the applicant, or by a child in the household, does not open this route. Paragraph E-ECP.3.3(a) names the applicant's partner. Where the sponsoring partner receives a listed benefit, the route opens; where they do not, the £29,000 requirement applies whatever else is true of the household.

The Benefit Must Be A UK Or Scottish One

All fourteen entries are benefits and payments administered in the UK by the Department for Work and Pensions, Social Security Scotland, or the Veterans Agency — which is why paragraph 12 of Appendix FM-SE names those three bodies as the sources of acceptable documentation. An overseas disability benefit is not on the list.

Carer's Allowance

Carer's Allowance is on the list in its own right, so a sponsoring partner receiving it opens the route. It is also income for the purposes of A — as is every other benefit currently received, including the disability benefits themselves.

Points Of Detail In The Published Rule

• The benefit must be in payment now. Paragraph E-ECP.3.3(a) uses the present tense — "must be receiving" — and paragraph 12 of Appendix FM-SE asks for documentation confirming the current entitlement and the amount currently received.
• Rates are taken at the date of decision. The guidance directs decision makers to use the Income Support rates applying when they decide, not when the application was made. On an application straddling April, the comparison figure may not be the one that was current when it was submitted.
• Everything is weekly. Annual salary figures have to be converted, and part-pennies are rounded down.
• Accommodation is a separate requirement. Paragraph E-ECP.3.4 requires adequate accommodation owned or occupied exclusively by the family, which is not adequate if it is or will be overcrowded, or contravenes public health regulations. The guidance applies the overcrowding standard in the Housing Act 1985, and states that living in an existing household — a parent's or a sibling's — is acceptable provided the couple have at least a bedroom for their exclusive use.
• Advice on an individual case is regulated. Our guide to using an adviser explains how to check that someone is registered with the Immigration Advice Authority.

Where To Find The Source

The rule itself is at paragraphs E-ECP.3.3, E-LTRP.3.3, E-ECC.2.3 and E-LTRC.2.3 of Appendix FM. The evidence rules are at paragraphs 12, 12A and 12B of Appendix FM-SE. The calculation and the benefit list are in the Home Office caseworker guidance Appendix FM and adult dependent relatives: adequate maintenance and accommodation, last updated on 11 November 2025.

One point in that guidance is worth knowing if a refusal arrives. Following the Upper Tribunal in Ahmed [2013] UKUT 84 (IAC), the Home Office directs its decision makers to set out the financial position — the A, B and C figures — in every decision letter refusing on adequate maintenance grounds. A refusal on this ground that does not show the arithmetic is not following the published guidance. Our guide to administrative review covers what can be challenged and how.

Questions and answers