89% of employers correctly understood they were responsible for carrying out right to work checks. But when asked about the specific details which documents are acceptable, when to recheck, who is responsible for agency workers 80% answered at least one question incorrectly. 

Think about that for a second. Four in five UK employers have at least one gap in their understanding of the rules they’re legally required to follow. 

What Employers Are Getting Wrong 

The survey findings are pretty eye-opening. Here are some of the most common mistakes employers made: 

• 51% said they would accept a driving licence or bank statement as proof of right to work neither is on the Home Office’s list of acceptable documents 

• 64% said employers were required to recheck all employee documents every five years that’s not how it works; rechecking is only required for workers with time-limited permission 

• Some employers, particularly those hiring agency workers incorrectly believed the agency or the worker themselves were responsible for the check 

• Small employers and those in construction were the most likely to get the details wrong 

(Home Office research published in April 2025)

None of these are outrageous mistakes. They’re the kind of thing you’d get wrong if you’d never had a clear briefing on the rules, or if guidance had changed since you last checked. Which, for many employers, it has. 

What Happens When You Get It Wrong 

Earlier this year, a fish and chip shop owner in Surrey found out the hard way. 

He hired a new member of staff and asked for documents. The worker provided a British passport, a national insurance number, student loan payment records, and housing benefit receipts. Everything matched. There were no red flags. 

In March 2025, immigration officers raided the shop. The worker was detained, he had allegedly been using someone else's identity. The owner was initially fined £45,000, reduced to £40,000 for cooperation, then to £28,000 for early payment.

The mistake? He checked a photocopy of the passport. Not the original. 

The Home Office was clear: “National insurance numbers, student loan payments and housing benefit receipts are not proof of an individual’s identity or right to work in the UK.” By not checking the original document, he failed to establish a statutory excuse the legal protection that would have shielded him from the fine even if the worker turned out to be using a false identity. 

He didn’t know about the statutory excuse. He didn’t know a photocopy wasn’t enough. He thought he’d done everything right. 

Sound familiar? 

The Rules Have Also Changed Recently 

If you set up your right to work process a few years ago and haven't revisited it since, there's a good chance it's out of date. The Home Office's current employer guidance was last updated on 26 June 2025, and a substantially revised version is already in draft ahead of major changes taking effect on 1 October 2026. There have been several significant changes over the past two years:

• Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) expired on 31 December 2024 workers who previously showed a BRP now need to demonstrate their right to work via the Home Office online service using their eVisa 

• Temporary adjusted check provisions from the pandemic era have now been fully removed all checks must follow standard procedures 

• Digital Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) are now an approved route for verifying British and Irish citizens these can establish a statutory excuse and are often more reliable than manual checks 

From 1 October 2026, the Net Widens

If your process hasn't been reviewed since early 2025, it may already be out of date and from 1 October 2026, the rules change again.

Until now, the legal duty to carry out right to work checks has sat with whoever directly employs the worker. That changes on 1 October 2026, when Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 comes into force.

From that date, businesses engaging agency workers, subcontractors, zero-hours staff and gig economy workers will fall within the civil penalty regime. If you use casual or agency labour and can't show that a compliant check was carried out, you'll be exposed to the same penalties as a direct employer — up to £45,000 per worker for a first breach, and £60,000 for repeat breaches.

If your business relies on flexible labour in any form, your right to work process needs reviewing before October.

How to Prevent Deepfake Interview Fraud: Steps UK Employers Should Take Now

The consensus across the industry for 2026 is clear: identity verification must move to the very start of the hiring funnel, before the interview, not after the offer.

1. Run Formal Identity Verification Before Interview

Do not wait until day one. Eurocom CI's  Digital ID service can verify a candidate's identity against official documents before they ever join a video call.

2. Use DBS Checks for All Eligible Roles

A DBS certificate ties an individual to a verified identity and criminal record. A digital DBS identity check must be carried out by a certified provider using liveness detection - technology specifically designed to detect and defeat deepfake attempts.

3. Verify Employment History and Qualifications Independently

Do not rely on what candidates tell you. Check with previous employers and awarding bodies. Fraudulent candidates often pair a stolen face with fabricated credentials, explore our employment history verification here.

4. Add Live Verification Steps to Video Interviews

Ask candidates to hold their ID to camera, perform an unexpected physical action, or complete an unscripted task in real time. These steps are difficult to fake with current deepfake technology and cost nothing to implement.

5. Work with a Professional Screening Provider

A managed pre-employment screening process creates a documented, auditable trail. This protects your organisation legally and operationally, and removes the burden of running individual checks in-house.

What a Correct Right to Work Check Actually Looks Like 

For a manual check, the correct process is: 

• Obtain the original document not a photocopy, scan, or photo 

• Check it with the individual present - either face to face, or by live video call, provided you are physically holding the original documents at the time

• Satisfy yourself it is genuine, belongs to the person, and permits them to do the work 

• Make a clear copy and record the date the check was carried out 

• Keep that record for the duration of employment and two years after they leave 

 

For workers with an eVisa or limited leave to remain, you’ll need to use the Home Office online checking service rather than a manual document check. 

And agency workers deserve special attention. Under the current rules, civil penalty liability sits with whoever employs the worker which for agency staff is usually the agency itself. But from 1 October 2026, that protection disappears: businesses using agency, casual and subcontracted workers will face civil penalties directly if a compliant check can't be evidenced. Best practice now is to verify that checks have been done on every agency worker you engage from October, it's the law.

How Eurocom CI Can Help 

We provide fully managed right to work verification for UK employers so every check is done correctly, documented, and audit-ready from day one. We take the process off your hands completely, keeping you up to date with guidance changes so you don’t have to track them yourself. 

Alongside right to work, we offer DBS checks, identity verification, employment history, reference checks, credit checks, social media screening, AML checks, and BS7858 a complete pre-employment screening service in one place. 

80% of employers have at least one gap in their right to work compliance. The question is whether you find it before the Home Office does. 

Talk to Eurocom CI about protecting your hiring process →