UK household employer guide
Right to work checks when employing domestic staff.
Before directly employing a nanny, housekeeper or other domestic professional, the household must complete the prescribed right to work check for that person. The correct route may be an online Home Office check, a manual document check or an approved digital identity check.
What is a right to work check?
A right to work check is the prescribed process an employer uses to confirm that a person is allowed to carry out the work being offered in the UK. GOV.UK says the check must be completed before employment begins.
If the prescribed check is carried out correctly, it can establish a statutory excuse against a civil penalty if the person is later found not to have permission to do the work in question. This page is general guidance, not immigration or legal advice for an individual case. For the household sequence, use the practical family checklist below.
The three prescribed checking routes most households will encounter.
Use the route that applies to the candidate’s evidence. Do not ask for a second method simply because you prefer it.
Use a right to work share code and date of birth.
Where a candidate can prove status digitally, use the official Home Office right to work service. The result shows whether the person can work and any restrictions on the type or duration of work. There is no need to repeat the check manually when the prescribed online check has been completed correctly.
Check an acceptable original document with the person present.
Manual checks remain available for specified documents. British and Irish citizens can, for example, use qualifying passport evidence. The Home Office acceptable-document lists determine what can establish a continuous or time-limited statutory excuse.
An approved identity service provider can be used in limited cases.
Employers may use an identity service provider offering Identity Document Validation Technology for eligible British and Irish passport holders. The employer still remains responsible for completing the prescribed process correctly.
A family right-to-work checklist before your new employee starts.
This is a practical sequence for household employers, not individual immigration advice. Use the current GOV.UK employer guidance because the prescribed checking route depends on the evidence the candidate can provide.
Once the right-to-work check is complete, use the household employer checklist before staff start for the remaining contract, payroll, pension and insurance steps. Right to work is separate from sponsorship; if you are considering someone overseas, read why sponsorship is not the ordinary household hiring route.
How does an online share-code check work?
The candidate gives the household a right to work share code and their date of birth. The employer enters those details into the GOV.UK right to work service and checks the Home Office result against the person presenting for work.
The result should be checked for the person’s identity, whether they are permitted to do the type of work offered and whether the permission is time-limited. The employer should retain evidence of the prescribed online check in the form required by the Home Office guidance.
Check a share code on GOV.UKWhat must a household check when using original documents?
GOV.UK says the employer must see acceptable original documents, check them with the applicant present, and make and retain clear copies with the date of the check recorded.
Physical biometric residence permits and biometric residence cards are no longer accepted as the document for a manual right to work check. Where digital status applies, the candidate should normally provide a share code for the Home Office online service.
List A and List B determine whether follow-up checks are needed.
The exact acceptable documents are controlled by the current Home Office guide. Do not rely on an old checklist copied from another website.
Continuous statutory excuse
List A contains documents that can establish an ongoing right to work, including qualifying evidence for British and Irish citizens. If the prescribed check is completed correctly before employment begins, no follow-up right to work check is normally required for that employment.
Time-limited statutory excuse
List B contains evidence for a temporary right to work. The household must carry out the required follow-up check before the existing statutory excuse expires if the employment continues.
Keep the evidence for the whole employment and for two years afterwards.
Home Office guidance requires the employer to retain the prescribed evidence securely throughout the person’s employment and for two years after they stop working for the employer.
The household should also record the date the check was completed and comply with data protection requirements when storing and destroying personal information.
When the normal routes do not resolve the status
When should the Employer Checking Service be used?
The Home Office Employer Checking Service is used in specified circumstances, including some outstanding applications, appeals or administrative reviews, certain Certificates of Application or Application Registration Cards, and cases where acceptable evidence cannot be produced but Home Office verification may be available.
A Positive Verification Notice can establish a statutory excuse for six months from the date stated on the notice. Whether the service applies depends on the individual situation, so use the official GOV.UK eligibility route rather than assuming that an application automatically permits work.
Use the Employer Checking ServiceRight to work is not the same as vetting, references or sponsorship.
Keep each decision separate so one piece of evidence is not treated as proof of something it does not establish.
From our work: we keep candidate matching separate from the employer right-to-work check.
Filipino Domestic Services is an introduction agency. Our staffing process starts with the household brief, then candidate introductions and household interviews. For a direct placement, the household chooses whom it wants to employ; the prescribed right-to-work check belongs to the employer and must be completed before employment begins.
We keep those stages separate because they answer different questions. Matching asks whether an individual candidate appears relevant to the role described. The right-to-work check asks whether that person is legally permitted to do the work being offered and whether any conditions or time limits apply. A previous UK job, a reference or information supplied during matching is not a substitute for the employer using the prescribed Home Office route.
Once a household has selected a candidate, the practical sequence is to identify which prescribed checking route applies to that individual, complete the check against the person presenting for work, retain the required evidence and record any follow-up date. If the status cannot be resolved through the normal online or document route, the household can then check whether the Employer Checking Service applies.
This separation also makes the rest of the employer setup clearer. References, interviews and role-specific checks inform the hiring decision; right-to-work evidence establishes permission to work; the contract, payroll, pension and insurance steps sit after the role and candidate are defined. We therefore point households back to the same written brief rather than treating “the agency checked them” as a catch-all assurance.
The operating principle is simple: FDS can introduce a candidate and explain where the employer check sits in the process, but the household retains its own evidence of the prescribed check and its own responsibility for the employment decision.
See how the introduction process worksWhy the prescribed check matters.
GOV.UK states that an employer can face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker where the correct checks were not carried out. In serious cases, knowingly employing someone without the right to work can also lead to criminal sanctions.
Completing a prescribed check correctly before employment begins can establish a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. It does not make an otherwise unlawful employment lawful, and it does not replace the need to respond appropriately if the person’s permission later expires or changes.
Apply the checking process consistently.
Right to work checks should not be based on assumptions about a person’s nationality, accent, surname or appearance. GOV.UK guidance requires employers to avoid unlawful discrimination while preventing illegal working.
Official sources used for this guide.
Questions about right to work checks for domestic staff.
Who is responsible for checking a nanny or housekeeper’s right to work?
For a direct placement, the household employer is responsible for completing the prescribed right to work check before employment begins. An agency introduction or candidate profile does not replace that employer duty.
Can I accept a biometric residence permit as proof of right to work?
Not as the physical document for a manual check under the current GOV.UK process. Where the person has digital immigration status, use the Home Office online right to work service with the appropriate share code and date of birth.
Do British and Irish citizens use a right to work share code?
British and Irish citizens generally do not use the Home Office right to work share-code service. Their right to work can be checked using eligible original documents, or in qualifying cases through an identity service provider.
How long should I keep right to work records?
Keep the prescribed evidence securely for the entire period the person works for you and for two years after the employment ends. Record the date of the check and follow data protection requirements.
Do I need to check the right to work again?
It depends on the evidence. A correctly completed List A check normally gives a continuous statutory excuse. Time-limited permission requires the appropriate follow-up check if employment continues.
Does a right to work check mean the candidate is suitable for the job?
No. Right to work confirms immigration permission for the work. References, qualifications, DBS eligibility and the household’s assessment of experience and suitability are separate checks.
Build the employer checks into the hiring plan.
Define the role, interview candidates and complete the appropriate checks before the chosen domestic professional starts work.