Right to work checks are in the tech ‘gig economy’ next. Are you ready?

‘Non-traditional’ IT roles face RTW requirements. That’s no bad thing, as long as it’s not drowned at — as £60,000 penalties are possible.

The UK’s Right To Work check system has more potential to trip up tech workers, their hirers or employers, and even other Free-Work readers, than Autumn Budget 2025.

November’s budget, a Right To Work distraction…

That’s not me minimising the impact of what may or may not be in the chancellor’s November 26th statement affecting the technology jobs landscape.

But it is me drawing attention to existing, already in force, potentially very costly Right To Work checks, also known as ‘RTW’ checks, writes Keith Rosser, director of screening at Reed, one of the UK’s largest recruitment firms.

What is the extension of Right To Work (RTW) to the tech ‘gig economy’?

Among IT job candidates and their engagers alike, not only do I not see enough awareness of RTW, a breach of which could trigger a hefty £60,000 penalty, but RTW is also soon to include additional parts of the labour supply chain:

• ‘Gig economy’ workers, so potentially tech job board users, and;

• Additional employers, such as ‘gig economy’ employers.

Right To Work expansion comes at a busy time for UK hiring

But there’s a twist.

The ‘gig economy’ extension of RTW (Right To Work) risks being drowned out by the noise around the sheer amount of activity in the UK’s atypical work economy.

Don’t worry, it’s activity that I pinpoint below.

That way, you can both be clear about the new developments yet also answer ‘What is a Right To Work check?’ and with equal confidence, understand how RTW’s expansion to the gig economy may affect you.

Top 4 hiring-related happenings (aside from RTW getting bigger)

The rule changes simmering in the UK’s labour market, with potential ramifications for tech job board users, are considerable enough to warrant a whole separate article of their own!

For now, though, here’s four big hiring-related events, coinciding with the ‘gig economy’ soon falling under Right To Work:

1. 2025 Autumn Budget: prior budgets have contained AI/tech investments, but this chancellor is very in need of cash, so could look to raise it from the tech jobs sector.

2. Employment Status Consultation: a review by Labour has been vowed by government officials as ‘pre-2026,’ so we’ll all get to see the details this year.

3. Joint and Several Liability (JSL): the clients of umbrella companies will face JSL from April 2026, where the umbrellas they engage fall short in their tax payments to HMRC.

4. Fair Work Agency: A new body to stick up for workers and hit exploitative employers just got its first boss. And he’s a boss who is known to understand the atypical marketplace very well!

Out of these four hiring-related happenings, each of which will invariably directly impact the freelancer, contractor, and gig communities including end-clients, the Fair Work Agency, to be launched in April 2026, is arguably the most exciting.

The Fair Work Agency, or FWA (and formerly known as the Single Enforcement Body), will be led by Sir Matthew Taylor.

And not forgetting the Employment Rights Bill…

Need a fifth seismic event affecting hiring and jobs, because four’s not enough?!

Sure, that’s easy. The fifth one would be the Employment Rights Bill, which is currently passing through parliament.

But it’s another bill which the Home Office contacted me about earlier this year, with a view to changing the way people in the UK are checked for eligibility when starting a job.

Well, this is RTW, otherwise known as Right To Work!

Mid-2026 is when the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration bill will gain royal assent

And I’m pleased to say that the bill to extend RTW to the ‘gig economy’ is now firmly on its way through parliament.

It’s likely to gain Royal Assent (i.e. when it is approved to pass into law) in mid-2026.

I don’t wish you ‘over-bill’ Free-Work readers!

But names matter, and the ‘gig economy’ RTW bill — the Border Security Asylum and Immigration (BSAI) Bill — aims to close what the government see as "loopholes" in Right To Work legislation.

What is a Right To Work check?

A Right To Work (RTW) check is the checking process tied to legislation that requires UK employers to check that the people they intend to hire can legally work in the UK. 

Before the coronavirus pandemic (‘covid’ in the UK, broadly from Q1 2020 until May 2023),  employers had to meet prospective hires in person. The requirement was to check their passport or other official documents to demonstrate that the individual had the right to work.

In 2022, the Home Office launched a digital system for Right To Work checks that enabled employers to conduct remote, digital checks without needing to meet people.

You can read the government notice at the time here.

Get ready, because RTW is about to extend to ‘non-traditional’ work…

Well, the new BSAI bill takes digital RTW checks further.

It addresses the rapid rise of what it calls "non-traditional" work.

Therefore, the bill will ensure that more atypical, non-traditional workers such as freelancers, contractors, and ‘gig economy’ workers, will be in scope.

If you’re a non-traditional worker reading this, thinking, “I needn’t worry, this is just a flash in the pan idea,” beware, because it’s not. In fact, there will soon be further considerable changes around the right to work in the UK, in the shape of the "BritCard" or National ID card.

You can read the government notice about the national ID scheme here.

What jobs will expanded RTW checks of non-traditional work arrangements affect?

Previously, many "non-traditional" types of work have not been in the scope of legislation, meaning some workers of certain:

• ‘gigs,’

• ‘jobs,’ or

• ‘contracts’ (including zero-hour contract jobs )

…have not always been under a requirement to be checked for Right To Work.

As the Home Office said on October 28th 2025:

Only companies using traditional employer-to-employee contracts are obliged to verify someone’s immigration status and whether it permits them to work in the UK.

Well, the new legislation aims to change this lack of RTW coverage for atypical and ‘gig economy’ workers.

To do so, the legislation focuses on "workers" engaged to provide services to a third party by individuals or organisations, rather than focusing on the traditional employee-employer relationship, which mainly operates via a contract of employment.

The latter (i.e. employees and their employers), and if that’s you, take note, are already in scope for Right to Work checking, meaning enforcement already applies. 

Why is Right To Work extending to the gig economy, and who in particular?

The Home Office and wider UK government believe there are too many risky gaps in current legislation which, they feel, is enabling illegal working. 

Those gaps are therefore going to be plugged with a view to using RTW to safeguard the following five workers:

1. Freelancers.

2. Self-employed people.

3. Individuals working on a "contract for service" (the typical arrangement that professional freelancers/contractors in tech or IT use) 

4. Zero-hours workers (sometimes referred to as ‘casual workers.’)

5. All other ‘gig economy’ workers, including workers sourced through online matching platforms.

Who has to run RTW checks under the ‘gig economy’ extension?

In some circumstances, many of the above five worker-types already have their right to work checked by recruitment agencies, umbrella companies, and employers.

But not always!

The BSAI bill aims to put the responsibility for carrying out the RTW check on whichever organisation has the contract with the worker (i.e. the party which engages the worker).

Keep in mind, that party won't always be the entity where the work is done.

To reiterate,  the ‘RTW check responsibility’ will sit with the engager or whoever holds the contract. 

Penalties: ‘Right To Work checks, what Right To Work checks?’

Getting RTW as a ‘gig economy’ employer wrong will be costly, in tech or any other sector.

Moreover, the chances of getting caught for an RTW breach are increasing, in line with a recent Home Office announcement.

Penalties for flouting Right To Work stand at up to £45,000 per worker for a first offence. And RTW penalties can max out at £60,000 per worker for a repeat offence. 

Right To Work in practice: examples of tech gig economy workers

If you’re a limited company contractor, on an outside IR35 self-employed basis, directly engaged by a technology organisation but not working under their control or supervision, then RTW’s extension impacts you.

In such an outside IR35, direct-to-client contractor scenario, the tech organisation engaging the limited company worker will need to complete the Right To Work check.

Right To Work expanding to the ‘gig economy’ has potential implications for less formal, freelance tech workers as well.

In fact, a freelancer who works on a specific short-term IT project for an organisation but does not have a contract with them will be covered by the enlarged RTW system. In this example, the organisation for which the project work is done will need to complete a Right To Work (RTW) check.

Does RTW (Right To Work) apply to umbrella companies?

As an even more topical example (given that umbrella company clients will be covered by Joint & Several Liability legislation from April 2026), if there was any doubt before surrounding umbrella companies, there is no doubt in future.

Under the Border Security Asylum and Immigration (BSAI) Bill, a contractor specialising in Linux, say, who works via an umbrella company for an end-client organisation, will need the umbrella company employer to complete their Right To Work check.

Right To Work checks in the food delivery and pick-up economies

The RTW ‘gig economy’ net can be wider still!

For example, a casual worker delivering food for a restaurant chain, on a self-employed contractor basis, will have to be Right To Work checked by the restaurant chain.

And what about a taxi driver using a matching service to match their vehicle to people wanting to be picked up?

Well, the organisation that provides the matching service will need to complete the Right To Work check.

Confused about ‘gig economy’ Right To Work checks?

A simple rule of thumb for all contractors, freelancers and other non-conventional workers is this:

Under the new legislation, all non-traditional work — no matter the relationship, the form of engagement, or third-party involvement — will be subject to Right To Work checks.

Hopefully, all ‘gig economy’ organisations due to be covered are going to be geared up to check Right To Work digitally; otherwise, there could be delays and barriers for people finding work. 

For the lowdown on what the Right To Work checking process actually involves, including RTW practicalities like Teams calls and other ways to check the right to work, see the government’s July 2025 updated guidance here.