All employers in the UK have a responsibility to prevent illegal working. You do this by conducting simple right to work checks before you employ someone, to make sure the individual is not disqualified from carrying out the work in question by reason of their immigration status.
Most people employed as employees or workers must be paid the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage, but are you aware of how to check if they are entitled?
Joint HMRC and Home Office webinar: understanding right to work and minimum wage eligibility
The Home Office Immigration Enforcement and HMRC’s National Minimum Wage (NMW) teams are offering joint webinars covering:
- when an employer needs to conduct a right to work check;
- what type of right to work check they need to conduct;
- how to use the Home Office Employer Checking Service;
- civil penalties and prosecutions when employers do not comply with the right to work legislation;
- how to report immigration crime;
- who is a worker for NMW purposes;
- how to establish if someone is self-employed; and
- exemptions to minimum wage eligibility. Register here for the 17 October webinar: [Registration (gotowebinar.com)](https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/5191632656077717848?source=HMRC)
Under Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax, sole traders and landlords with income of more than £50,000 have been required to keep digital records and send quarterly updates to HMRC since 6 April 2026.
The UK jobs market showed fresh signs of strain in the latest labour market figures, published by the Office for National Statistics on 18 August 2026.