Does a client have to check your right to work? What changed on 1 October

Since 1 October 2026, some clients have to check you have the right to work in the UK before you start, even though you're self-employed. It covers you when an agency or contractor places you with its own client, and when a platform charges a fee to match you with clients. If you run your own business and contract directly with a client who's buying the work for its own use, the Home Office guidance says no check is needed. Contracts entered into before 1 October aren't caught.

The change comes from section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. The Home Office's employer's guide to right to work checks explains who it catches, with worked examples, and the rest of this post comes from it.

What changed on 1 October

Until now, the duty to check sat with employers and their employees. The Act widened who counts as an employer for this purpose, so the duty now reaches some arrangements with self-employed people too.

A business that gets it wrong can face a civil penalty for each worker, set out in the code of practice. The guidance says there's no grace period.

When a client has to check you

The guidance looks at how the work is arranged in practice, not at what the contract calls it. These are the set-ups it brings in.

• You're a link in a chain. An agency or contractor has agreed to provide work to its own client and brings you in to do it. That makes you an individual sub-contractor, and the business that contracts with you has to check you. The business further up the chain can be liable too, which is why the terms can travel down the contracts to you.
• A platform matched you with the client. A business that keeps a register of people like you, takes enquiries online and charges a fee or commission for each match counts as an online matching service. In the guide's example, a cleaner is booked through one, and the platform is responsible for the check, not the homeowner.
• You're on a worker's contract. If you do the work personally for someone who isn't really your client or customer, it can be a worker's contract for this purpose. The guide's example is a hospitality temp engaged by an employment business on a contract for services.

When a client doesn't need to

The guidance names the set-up it doesn't cover: people "operating an independent business either in their own name or through their own company" who contract directly with clients or customers. That takes in selling your service straight to the public, and an ordinary business-to-business contract where the client is buying a service rather than taking on a person.

Two of the worked examples will look familiar. A self-employed plumber who advertises to the public and works for lots of customers needs no check. Nor does a graphic designer whose own limited company contracts with the client company and invoices in the company's name.

The chain rules only reach a client who is passing your work on to someone else. A business buying your service for its own operations isn't in a chain.

No label settles it, though. The guidance says there's no blanket exclusion for anyone described as a contractor, freelancer or consultant, or for anyone working through a personal service company. If a client asks and you think you're outside it, it's fair to ask which part of the guidance they're relying on.

Contracts signed before 1 October

The rules aren't retrospective. The date that counts is when the contract was entered into, not when the work started. A project agreed in September that runs into next year isn't caught.

Renewals are less clear. The guidance says a renewal, extension or variation might amount to a new contract or might not, depending on its legal effect, so don't assume either way. If you're re-signing with an agency soon, expect the question.

How you prove it

The client can't choose the method for you. The guidance says employers can't mandate how you prove your right to work and have to give you a reasonable chance to do it. They should also check everyone the same way, British citizens included.

• You're a British or Irish citizen. Show your passport. For a manual check it can be current or expired, and an Irish passport card works too. The client has to have the original in front of them, so a passport held up to a webcam or a scan by email doesn't count. If you work remotely, ask whether they use a certified digital identity provider, which can check your passport digitally instead.
• You have an eVisa. Get a share code from gov.uk's prove your right to work service and send it to the client with your date of birth. A right to work code starts with W. Codes starting with R or S are for other services and won't be accepted. Codes also expire, so check yours is still live.
• Your application is still pending. If you've applied and your digital record doesn't show it yet, the client can ask the Home Office's Employer Checking Service to confirm.

New clauses you might see

Where a platform matched you, or you're supplying people further down a chain, the business above you has to have certain terms in place before the work starts. Expect your contract with them to say that you'll:

• carry out the same checks on anyone you put on the work
• not subcontract any of it without their written consent
• let them audit those checks

Substitution clauses matter here too. Plenty of freelance contracts let you send someone else in your place. In an arrangement that's in scope, that right can make the client responsible for whoever turns up instead, so expect questions about it. That's a separate matter from IR35: the guidance says an IR35 decision is a tax assessment and doesn't decide whether a right to work check is needed.

If you subcontract, you might be the one checking

An individual sub-contractor is someone who contracts with you to do work that you've agreed to provide to your own client. If you pass part of a client project to another freelancer, that can be you. Read the guide's examples before you take someone on for anything agreed from 1 October.

The same checking rules then apply to you, including a dated record of the check and securely kept copies. Those copies are personal data, so your GDPR duties apply to them as well.

What happens to your passport copy

A manual check means the client copies your document and records the date of the check. The guidance says they must keep that copy securely for as long as you work for them and for two years afterwards, then destroy it. If a client asks you to email a scan for their files, that isn't the check the guidance describes, and it's reasonable to ask how they'll store it.

The bottom line

If you find your own clients and sell to them directly, the guidance says you don't need a check. If an agency or a matching platform sits between you and the client, expect to be asked, and since 1 October they may have to ask. You pick the method, and the copy they keep has to be destroyed two years after the work ends.