Businesses employing illegal migrant workers could now face fines of up to £60,000 per worker under an intensified crackdown by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).
The warning comes amid a wave of unannounced inspections and a sharp rise in sponsor licence suspensions and revocations.
According to André Minnaar, Partner and Head of the Immigration Team at law firm Sydney Mitchell, the government is significantly increasing pressure on businesses that hold Skilled Worker sponsor licences, with a particular focus on sectors such as social care, where overseas recruitment is most common.
“In recent weeks, there have been multiple reports confirming that UKVI has increased compliance visits to sponsor licence holders,” Minnaar said. “This has led to a dramatic increase in the number of licence suspensions and revocations – and an uptick in enforcement visits targeting illegal working.”
The penalty for employing illegal workers now stands at £45,000 per worker for a first offence, and £60,000 for repeat offenders within a three-year period.
Figures from the Home Office show that between January and June 2024, 833 Skilled Worker sponsors had their licences suspended, while 709 were revoked. That compares to just 569 suspensions and 337 revocations for the whole of 2023, marking a sharp increase in enforcement.
Much of the crackdown appears to stem from growing political pressure to curb legal migration numbers, alongside high-profile abuse cases in the care home sector, which is one of the UK’s most dependent industries on foreign workers.
“UKVI uncovered large-scale abuse of the visa system by certain care home agencies,” said Minnaar. “The result has been an unprecedented number of suspensions, leaving many migrant workers in limbo and without jobs.”
UKVI’s compliance visits, which may be pre-arranged or unannounced, are designed to assess whether a business is meeting its sponsor duties. This includes verifying that human resource systems are in place to monitor employees’ visa statuses, keep records up to date, and prevent illegal working.
Minnaar warns that any business holding a sponsor licence must be audit-ready at all times:
• Failure to meet compliance standards can result in a business’s licence being downgraded from an A to a B rating.
• The business will then be issued an action plan, must pay a fee, and will be temporarily barred from sponsoring new workers.
• In more serious cases, UKVI can suspend or revoke the sponsor licence altogether. Revocation means the business can no longer employ sponsored workers and those already employed may have their visas curtailed.
“The consequences of failing a Home Office inspection can be severe,” Minnaar said. “Businesses need to ensure robust recruitment, HR and compliance processes are in place and regularly reviewed.”
With enforcement increasing and penalties rising, immigration specialists are urging all sponsor licence holders to carry out internal audits and compliance training.
Businesses must be able to demonstrate:
• They have up-to-date records of all sponsored workers.
• Their recruitment procedures include right-to-work checks.
• All sponsorship duties are being met in accordance with UKVI regulations.
“These spot-checks are not going away,” Minnaar warned. “If your house is not in order, your business is at serious risk – not just of fines, but of losing the ability to recruit overseas talent entirely.”
As the political climate around immigration continues to tighten, sponsor licence holders are being urged to treat compliance as a strategic priority, not a box-ticking exercise.
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Businesses face £60,000 fines per illegal worker as HMRC and UKVI escalate crackdown