Right to work
The employer check that a person is allowed to do the proposed work in the UK.
What is a right-to-work check?
A right-to-work check is the prescribed employer process for confirming before employment that a person is allowed to do the proposed work in the UK.
Depending on the person, the route may be a Home Office online check, a digital verification service for eligible British or Irish passport holders, or a manual document check.
What matters
Start with the rule
A right-to-work check is the prescribed employer process for confirming before employment that a person is allowed to do the proposed work in the UK.
Write down the decision
Keep the policy, dates, calculation inputs and decision together so another person can understand what happened.
Check the current source
Home Office guidance and acceptable evidence change. Use the live employer guide, not an old saved checklist.
A practical checklist
For a small team, a short repeatable process beats an impressive policy nobody follows.
- Apply the process consistently to all recruits
- Use the correct route for the person's evidence
- Check identity, restrictions and expiry
- Keep the required dated evidence
- Schedule a follow-up where permission is time-limited
Where software helps — and where it does not
HollyHR can keep the relevant people record, dates, documents, leave and working pattern in one place. It cannot decide a legal, medical or employee-relations question for you.
Home Office guidance and acceptable evidence change. Use the live employer guide, not an old saved checklist.
Check the source, not just our summary
Rules and product pages change. These are the first-party references behind this page.
Questions people ask
Is this legal advice?
No. It is a practical summary for UK small teams. Check the linked official guidance and take qualified advice for a specific or disputed case.
Why keep the source with the calculation?
Rates and rules change. Recording the inputs, date and source makes the answer reviewable instead of becoming an unexplained number in a spreadsheet.
Can HollyHR track this?
HollyHR can hold the underlying employee, working-pattern, leave and document records. It does not present itself as a legal-advice engine.
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