Refusal on spouse visa on financial exemption rule.please help.

[Terpe]

SPOUSE VISA REFUSED :
CAN ANYONE GIVE ME ADVICE.
I NOW have a job for 5 hours a week earning £150 approx per month which started a week ago.
I was not working at time of submitting spouse visa.
My DLA is £392.00 per month with savings of approx £4000.
Rent is free provided by my parents.
And I am pregnant and due in 11 weeks time.
Could I appeal with my new job as I am short of only £90.95 per month from the Income Support Rate ??????

I would appreciate any feedback or advice.

REASON GIVEN BELOW AS WORDED ON REFUSAL OF ENTRY CLEARANCE :

Your sponsor is exempt from meeting the requirements of paragraph E-ECP.3.1 as they are in receipt of DLA.
In order to meet requirements of these Rules you and your sponsor must be able to maintain and accommodate yourselves and any dependents adequately in the UK without recourse to public funds.
I note that your sponsor is in receipt of £392.00 per month benefits.
I am not able to take into account any potential employment you have available to you in the UK or any offers of of financial support from third parties.
You propose to live with your sponsor at her parents' home and you provide evidence that they own a property in the UK.
However the Income Support for a family with no children is £482.95 per month excluding rent.
Therefore your sponsor's income does not meet the Income Support rate.
I am not satisfied that you and your sponsor are able to maintain yourselves and any dependents adequately in the UK without recourse to public funds.
I therefore refuse your application under paragraph EC-P.1.1 (d) of Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules. ( E-ECP.3.3 (b)).

Very sorry to hear about your refusal. It's always upsetting no matter what the reasons.

You correctly understood the immigration rules in that those in receipt of DLA are exempt from the Financial Requirement relating to minimum Income Threshold.

However, somewhere along the way it seems you did not understand that instead of Financial Requirements you need to meet the exemption immigration rules under FM1.7a - Maintenance.
These rules state that there must be 'adequately maintenance'

In simple terms you must provide evidence that after housing costs have been deducted, there must be available to the family the level of gross income that would be available to them if the family was in receipt of income support.

For 2012-2013 tax year this amount is £111.45 per week for a couple with no children.

When the application was made this minimum income of £111.45 per week (£482.95 per month) was not reached.
The caseworkers and ECO's do not have any discretion at all on this. The only was for the application to fail and be refused.

Personally I can see no chance that any appeal would be successful.
Appeals usually take quite a long time to be worked. Usually expect 6 months.

I believe you would benefit from a short free consulation with an experienced immigration advisor.
Your circumstances are not stable since you are already pregnant. After the birth of your baby the needed level of 'adequate maintenance' will increase by £64.99 per week from £111.45 per week to £176.44 per week (£764.57 per month)

It looks like your best option would be to re-apply asap with your latest income figures since they do meet existing requirements. (if you can provide sufficient evidence)
Be aware there are still some risks involved especially looking into the future and that you will be expected to reach any new income levels for the next visa FLR(M) in 30 months time.

Please review the information and consider a brief update from an experienced advisor on your own personal options.

Strictly speaking although you only need to prove receipt of DLA, you would need to provide additional details of your new job which essentially means several months (maybe 3 - 6 months) of payslips and associated bank statements plus a letter from the employer (confirming the person’s employment and annual salary)
I can't give you precise info just now on just how many months but an experienced advisor will likely know.
If there's any doubt it must be 6 months.

Hope this will help you a little

[Exempt]

Very sorry to hear about your refusal. It's always upsetting no matter what the reasons.

You correctly understood the immigration rules in that those in receipt of DLA are exempt from the Financial Requirement relating to minimum Income Threshold.

However, somewhere along the way it seems you did not understand that instead of Financial Requirements you need to meet the exemption immigration rules under FM1.7a - Maintenance.
These rules state that there must be 'adequately maintenance'

In simple terms you must provide evidence that after housing costs have been deducted, there must be available to the family the level of gross income that would be available to them if the family was in receipt of income support.

For 2012-2013 tax year this amount is £111.45 per week for a couple with no children.

When the application was made this minimum income of £111.45 per week (£482.95 per month) was not reached.
The caseworkers and ECO's do not have any discretion at all on this. The only was for the application to fail and be refused.

Personally I can see no chance that any appeal would be successful.
Appeals usually take quite a long time to be worked. Usually expect 6 months.

I believe you would benefit from a short free consulation with an experienced immigration advisor.
Your circumstances are not stable since you are already pregnant. After the birth of your baby the needed level of 'adequate maintenance' will increase by £64.99 per week from £111.45 per week to £176.44 per week (£764.57 per month)

It looks like your best option would be to re-apply asap with your latest income figures since they do meet existing requirements. (if you can provide sufficient evidence)
Be aware there are still some risks involved especially looking into the future and that you will be expected to reach any new income levels for the next visa FLR(M) in 30 months time.

Please review the information and consider a brief update from an experienced advisor on your own personal options.

Strictly speaking although you only need to prove receipt of DLA, you would need to provide additional details of your new job which essentially means several months (maybe 3 - 6 months) of payslips and associated bank statements plus a letter from the employer (confirming the person’s employment and annual salary)
I can't give you precise info just now on just how many months but an experienced advisor will likely know.
If there's any doubt it must be 6 months.

Hope this will help you a little

IS my DLA income of £392 counted towards the £482.95 adequate maintenance figure ??????

[Terpe]

IS my DLA income of £392 counted towards the £482.95 adequate maintenance figure ??????

Yes.
Income from benefits can be included as income towards adequate maintenance.