What is a right to work check?
The right to work check consists of checking a candidate’s documents that shows they have the right to work in the UK. These checks are conducted on all potential employees, before you employ them. All candidates must present their original right to work documentation to avoid discrimination.
Visit Gov.uk to see what documents are valid to show for right to work.
How to conduct checks
In order to accurately conduct a right to work check you must first acquire the original document from the candidates. You can then thoroughly check the document and verify that the document matches with the candidate in question details and is a genuine document. It is also important to check that documents are in date and to question any name changes or different names on the document.
You should then make a black and white copy of the right to work documents, making sure the copy cannot be altered at a later date.
If you decide not to employ an individual you must safely discard of all their documentation and extra copies that have been made. Additionally, if an employee leaves you should safely destroy all their documents no later than 2 years after their employment has ended.
For more information on right to work documents that are deemed acceptable visit Gov.uk.
When should you conduct checks?
Right to work checks must be conducted before you employ any candidates. This is so you can check candidates have all the correct documents before employing them and so you can avoid hiring illegal workers and facing penalties or prosecution.
If an individual has a limited amount of time in the UK, you can conduct follow up checks to make sure their documents are up-to-date and they still have the right to work.
What happens if you don’t conduct RTW checks?
If you do not conduct RTW checks you risk employing an illegal worker. If this happens you may receive a ‘referral notice’ stating you have to pay a civil penalty fine of £20,000 per illegal worker, you are expected to respond to this within 28 days.
The Immigration Act 2016 states that an employer can be prosecuted if there is reasonable cause to believe that the employer knew an employee had no right to work, whether it had expired or the documentation was invalid. This also implies if an employer did not conduct any checks to begin with, and could be sentenced for 2-5 years.
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