BritCard: a digital Right To Work revolution or more of the same?

A new paper from the think-tank Labour Together to equip every Briton with a digital Right-To-Work credential -- a ‘card’ you’d keep in your smartphone’s wallet-- is reportedly being considered closely by Number 10 Downing Street.

What is a BritCard?

Among the many economic benefits that “BritCard: A Progressive Digital Identity for Britain” says a digital identity for citizens in the UK would offer, I am most interested in it potentially replacing today’s Right To Work checking regime, writes Keith Rosser, director of Reed Screening.  

The paper says: “Develop a technical specification and policy case for a digital right-to-work credential (a joint project between the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (GDS), and Home Office as identity and migration lead department).

“Prototyping and service design testing should also be part of this process.”

BritCard promises free Right To Work Checks

Labour Together says that the BritCard, containing a digital Right To Work credential for all those with the Right To Work in the UK, would be free. 

A mandatory credential, the BritCard would also make clear the holder’s right to live in the UK, for both British-born nationals and legal migrants.

The BritCard is envisioned as being “free of charge” for job applicants (including contractors), and free for employers too.

But this proposal will deal a hammer blow to the digital identity industry, which has invested significant resources in technology to instantly verify ‘Right To Work’ for employers.

The current system is already free for contractors.

So will BritCard definitely be free?

Right now, employers are rightly focused on the ‘candidate journey,’ and making the RTW and hiring processes as quick and frictionless as possible.

BritCard would be an app on a job seeker's smartphone, and a "verifier app" for employers.

At the time of writing, more detail is needed to understand:

• how flexible that process will be;
• how the "verifier app" will work, and;
• how corporate entities would integrate BritCard into their internal systems.

Employers, I imagine, would likely prefer to pay the current cost of a Right To Work check than implement technology that, while free, does not really fit the process or that creates friction. 

BritCard: How will it work?

We are told that the app would automatically check a person’s Right To Work (RTW) against government records.

It would say, for example, whether the person has permanent, time-limited, or no RTW.

Up until now, the Home Office has put a lot of time into making sure that the Online Checking Service for RTW contains all the information employers need on time-limited visas.

So employers will very soon need to know that BritCard will have the same data, should No 10 decide to adopt the proposed technology.

‘More frequent checks’

Joined by its chief policy adviser Morgan Wild, Labour Together’s tech director Kirsty Innes and its tech policy adviser Laurel Boxall, say the BritCard “would be possible to require more frequent checks.”

How frequent, and what the onus on employers might be, needs working through (and then articulating to affected parties) in greater detail.

More frequent checking would create more opportunity costs. It would also create a greater potential for mistakes. 

BritCard’s backers say RTW system disincentives UK hires

In their 30-page plan for the BritCard, its authors claim that the current RTW system is a “disincentive” to hire UK workers.

This isn't the case.

There is a cost to current digital checking; yes, but for large organisations, this outlay is offset by the savings from not having to meet new hires in person.

And for smaller organisations, costs can be avoided by taking on in-person or via the postal route.

Will BritCard be fast?

In my view, at this early point, the speed efficiency claims made in the BritCard proposal are grossly overstated.

If the various "apps" aren't integrated seamlessly, it could add time and friction to hiring. Candidate experience, the contractor journey, and process detail will all be needed before a true judgement can be made on whether using a BritCard is any quicker than the current digital Right To Work process.

And whether this new digital credential can solve the current process issues inherent in the digital scheme or whether those continue. 

Would BritCard be better for contractors?

Or more specifically, would BritCard be better for contractors when compared to the current use of a passport or e-Visa?

In terms of RTW, it doesn't appear to really make a difference.

But in the future,  there could be greater benefit if other credentials are attached to the BritCard which could help people get jobs faster.

Employers get a bad press

Overall, the BritCard proposal appears to paint a fairly negative view of employers.

It suggests the current cost of Right To Work checks is a "disincentive to hire UK nationals" and cites only 23% of UK firms carrying these out.

What this fails to recognise is that the 23% utilising paid checks will be employing 90% of the UK workforce.

The birth certificate question, among others

Labour Together also claims the current RTW system means "many employers may not carry out effective checks."

But this statement seemingly fails to recognise that the main issue with complexity is those UK citizens without passports.

Will they be issued a BritCard on the strength of a birth certificate alone?

Labour Together further claims "many (employers) don't do it” (i.e. perform Right To Work checks) “at all."

It’s a sweeping statement.

In my understanding, the vast majority of organisations attempt to do the right thing, although I acknowledge some (particularly shadowy) organisations choose not to check individuals’ Right To Work in the UK.

BritCard: An end to impostering?

BritCard is also suggested to be a solution to ‘impostering.’ That’s the term given to where the person "employed/engaged" is not the person who arrives to carry out the work.

I struggle to see how BritCard will eliminate this ruse, in practice.

To me, it appears the same problem -- the person being engaged or employed is the BritCard-holder, whereas the person turning up at someone's own house to perform caring duties, or to tutor a child, or to work from home in an IT role, is someone totally different!

Is BritCard beneficial for contractors?

Right now, the answer to whether BritCard is beneficial for the UK is, a bit disappointingly, ‘it depends.’

For contractors, it’ll be important to differentiate the political statements made by Labour Together on illegal working from the practical issues about what BritCard will address, and how it will work.

Furthermore for the UK contractor sector, for those freelance consultants without an in-date British passport or e-Visa, BritCard seems to make sense. But for the majority of temporary professionals in the UK, they should be benefitting from fast, remote, and free Right To Work checks already.