Verifying Someone's Right to Work in the UK

Learn how you can verify someone's right to work in the UK with this comprehensive guide. We cover manual checks, online checks, identity service providers and more.

Verifying Someone's Right to Work in the UK

As the rules surrounding the right to work in the UK may change depending on the decisions of the government or the European Union, it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest information. Student visas allow a person to work up to 20 hours a week on a temporary basis, but only if they are studying full time. They are allowed to work full time during holidays outside of school hours, but they cannot work permanently. The UK government has a simple tool for verifying people's right to work here.

Be sure to check the most up-to-date news using reliable employment rules sites. Brexit and COVID-19 have brought about a lot of changes, but the government's useful tool provides the latest updates. Employers can write checks manually or online. Manual checks require the employer to make a copy of the document and date it.

Online checks can be made at the UK government, but for the time being they are only available to those workers who hold a biometric permit or green card, or who are classified under the EU Settlement System. There may be cases where you need to contact the Home Office to verify a worker's right to work in the UK, as explained in the government guide below. Departments must keep an updated record of all assigned hours and check with the student that they have not done any additional work elsewhere during the corresponding period to ensure that the maximum number of hours is not exceeded. You'll need to check your original documents (for example, your passport or passport card) or use an identity service provider instead. To perform a manual verification, the employee does not need to be physically present; if the new staff member sends their documents to the employer, the employer can manually verify the document while talking to the worker via a video link at the same time. Given that Brexit is about to end freedom of movement and that the government has established a new points-based immigration system, questions have arisen about how to verify a person's legal right to work in the United Kingdom. It may seem obvious to employers, but proving that a person has the right to work in the UK before or during the hiring of a migrant worker should be one of many background checks on a person.

Photo identification must be the same on all documents, so it's best to check them all to make sure they match and look like the person they claim to be. As long as the work they do each time is linked to the same commitment, only a verification of their right to work is required. You can also verify an applicant's right to work by using an identity service provider that offers identity document validation (IDVT) technology. After a second error in using this system, Sims met with her director and brought her previous ILR and DBS checks to this meeting. Check that it is indeed the potential employee or employee presenting these documents, that they are authorized to take on this type of work and that their photo identification matches across all documents. If their right to work is limited in time, you'll need to check their documents again when they expire. It is necessary to subsequently verify their right to work if they undertake a new short-term leave (at the start of a new contract) or before UCL hires them in another position (for example, IDVT technology allows British and Irish citizens to confirm their identity and demonstrate that they are eligible for employment and renting and request DBS checks by uploading images of their personal documents instead of presenting physical documents directly).

A person from any of these categories can only start working once UCL has received a positive verification notification from their Employer Verification Service. You could face a civil penalty if you employ an illegal worker and have not performed an accurate verification of their right to work.