Online Right to Rent checks coming?
The Immigration Minister, Kevin Foster MP, responded to a written question by Alex Norris MP (Labour, Nottingham North) asking what plans the Home Office has to update the Right to work checks and Right to rent document checks guidance to allow digital forms of identification to be accepted.
Kevin Foster, responded: “When an individual undergoes a right to work or right to rent check, they are not just evidencing their identity, they must also demonstrate their entitlement to work or rent.
“The Home Office is transforming the way migrants demonstrate their immigration status and right to work and rent in the UK.
“The digital online status checking service for employers conducting right to work checks was launched on 6 April 2018.
“In January 2019, we amended secondary legislation and issued new guidance to employers which sets out how they can use the online service in complying with their responsibilities under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 on the prevention of illegal working.
“The Home Office is planning to launch an online digital right to rent status checking service to support landlords in conducting right to rent checks.
“The government is also working to develop proposals for a digital identity system that would enable people to prove their identity easily and securely, without the need to provide physical documents, and to meet the demands of the digital age.”
As of yet there have been no timescales placed on when these new checks might be made available to Landlords or the exact status of current progress, so best not to hold your breath.
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Member Since March 2015 - Comments: 1969 - Articles: 1
11:04 AM, 11th February 2020, About 6 years ago
Online checks should have been tested and implemented BEFORE any R2R checks came in (if at all). The same is gonna happen for S.21 and a Housing Court. Legislation will come in before there’s a proper solution.
Member Since August 2016 - Comments: 1190
11:26 AM, 11th February 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 11/02/2020 – 11:04
You’re right Luke training judges and setting up Housing Courts will take many years. That’s the plan, landlords won’t be able to obtain possession for months and months if not years…….helps reduce homelessness. The Government aren’t stupid.
Member Since July 2013 - Comments: 1996 - Articles: 21
6:16 PM, 11th February 2020, About 6 years ago
Will employers be threatened with 5 years in prison if they employ an illegal immigrant (anyone remember the Home Office cleaners https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/may/19/immigration.immigrationpolicy?)
If HMG is not prepared to imprison employers (who have much closer contact with their employees than landlords usually have with tenants) including ministers and MPs, why are landlords threatened with this punishment?
Member Since August 2016 - Comments: 508
12:43 PM, 12th February 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 11/02/2020 – 18:16
Not sure I grasp this query, or am I just a horrid old cynic? ‘Employer’ and ‘Landlord’ may be close or distant from the human being that is the potential employee or tenant? Ever since Personnel became Human Remains, the employer/ee relationship changed, people became numbers?
Landlords may be a monolith or a nice lady wishing to let out a spare room? Fact and Degree? That’s the common sense?
The reality is politics. Employers create ‘Jobs’, that magic elixir-word for politicians? Anything however inappropriate may be justified if a ‘Job Creator’? Sorry (not even sorry) Landlords, you are just providing housing for these job-seekers but you don’t count???