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The end of 'just pay them cash': Right to Work Checks now reach your Contractors
Do you remember when you could just take on a casual worker for a few days' work and pay them in cash, without ever really doing anything more?
A handshake, a quick chat about what needed doing, and an envelope at the end of the week. For many small businesses, that was simply how extra help arrived during a busy spell.
If those days have been fading for a while, from 1st October 2026 they are firmly behind us. Right to Work checks, long thought of as something you do for employees, now reach many of the contractors, subcontractors and casual helpers who personally do work for your business.
What has changed?
Until now, most businesses have linked Right to Work checks with employees. If someone was on the payroll, you checked. If they sent you an invoice, you probably didn't.
The rules have now been extended. They can apply where you engage someone under a worker's terms of engagement, or as an individual subcontractor contract for services. In practice, that can include self-employed contractors, subcontractors and other non-standard arrangements, wherever the individual personally provides the work or services.
The new civil penalty regime applies to these arrangements where the engagement starts on or after 1st October 2026. Existing engagements are not caught retrospectively, but every new one from now on needs thinking about.
"But they're self-employed..."
This is the assumption that will catch people out. It is no longer safe to say: "They're self-employed, so we don't need to carry out a Right to Work check."
Don’t focus on what you call the arrangement; it is not the deciding factor. Calling someone a contractor, paying them by invoice or describing them as self-employed does not, on its own, take them outside the new rules. What matters is whether that individual is personally doing some form of meaningful work for you.
It is worth being equally clear about what has not changed. A Right to Work check does not turn a contractor into an employee. It has no bearing on their status for tax, holiday pay, SSP or any other employment right. Employment status and Right to Work compliance are two separate questions, and you need to answer each on its own terms.
What should employers do?
For most SMEs, the starting point is simple: look at everyone working for you who is not a conventional PAYE employee. That might be an individual consultant, a casual contractor, a subcontractor, temporary labour or the person who helps out for a few days when things get busy.
We recommend that businesses now:
Review how they engage contractors, subcontractors and other non-PAYE workers.
Identify the individuals who personally provide work or services to the business.
Build appropriate Right to Work checks into onboarding for relevant new engagements.
Keep evidence of the checks carried out.
Diarise repeat checks where someone's permission to work is time-limited.
Review arrangements with agencies, labour suppliers and subcontractors so it is clear who is responsible for the checks.
That last point is important. Where several parties sit between you and the individual doing the work, it is easy for everyone to assume someone else has done the check. Make sure your contracts say who does what. So, if you take on a principal contractor make sure the commercial terms clearly state that it is their responsibility to undertake right to work checks, and you reserve the right to audit whether this has been correctly done.
There is still one form of other ‘worker’ where the legal obligation to undertake right to work checks is as clear as mud and that is volunteer. There is now a distinction between those that are ‘genuinely volunteering’ as opposed to those that are ‘voluntary workers’.
It is our opinion that someone that undertakes regular unpaid but defined work for you, with key responsibilities and decision making, even though up to now they have been considered to be a volunteer, they may possibly also be classed under these new rules as a worker. This could even potentially apply to volunteers that undertake high level unpaid work for a designated period of time, such as the elected role of Committee Chairs or Treasurers.
So, for those organisations that also use a range of volunteers, then you may wish to take the prudent approach, better safe than sorry, and undertake Right to Work checks for all new yet key voluntary appointments.
A second change from 1st October
Right to Work is not the only thing changing. From 1st October 2026, the time limit for bringing most Employment Tribunal claims has doubled, from three months to six months.
The practical effect is that a dispute you might once have considered closed can now stay live for twice as long. Employers will need to hold on to relevant evidence for longer and be ready to manage potential claims further down the line.
It also underlines something we say often: good records matter. Notes of meetings, copies of correspondence, and a clear trail showing how and why decisions were made are your best protection when a claim arrives months after the event.
Five minutes now, or a difficult conversation later
The cash-in-hand casual worker may belong to another era, but the need for flexible help has not gone anywhere. The change is that bringing someone in now needs a small amount of process at the front end.
If you are unsure whether a particular contractor or working arrangement falls within the extended Right to Work rules, retained clients are welcome to get in touch with us.
As ever, a five-minute check at the start of an engagement is considerably easier than trying to explain afterwards why nobody checked at all.
The guidance provided in this article is just that - guidance. Before taking any action, make sure that you know what you are doing, or call an expert for specific advice.
