New Ban on Recovering Sponsorship Costs from Workers

During the last week of 2024, the Home Office implemented a new ban for employers recovering specific sponsorship costs from skilled workers. Instead, employers who sponsor international talent will need to pay for Certificates of Sponsorship, sponsor licences, and associated costs themselves.

This ban came into place on 31^st December 2024.

Therefore, employers must no longer pass on the following costs to skilled workers:

• The sponsor licence fee or associated administrative costs for applications made from 31^st December 2024. This includes a request to add the Skilled Worker route to an existing sponsor licence.
• The Certificate of Sponsorship (Cos) fee for CoS assigned on or after 31^st December 2024.

This change follows the past ban on employers passing on the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) to workers.

Consequences of ignoring this ban

If an employer ignores this new ban and requests their worker to pay some or all of the costs mentioned above, or if they recover, or attempt to recover some or all of the costs then the Home Office may choose to:

• Downgrade or suspend the employer’s sponsorship licence
• Revoke the employer’s sponsorship licence (this could be done immediately or after considering the matter)
• Have the employer face an unlawful deduction of wages claim at an Employment Tribunal

Why has this change happened?

This ban has been implemented to tackle the growing number of allegations of employers charging workers for sponsoring them. This is especially prevalent in the care sector. As a result, many of these workers have fallen into debt.

Future changes to sponsorship costs

This new ban is currently only in place for the Skilled Worker route. However, the plan is to widen the ban to other sponsored employment routes in the future. Although, no timeline has been provided for this change yet.

How should employers respond?

In response to this change, we would advise employers to:

• Review and update any immigration policies you have
• Review and update your employment contracts and any other documents mentioning passing on these costs to your workers
• Consider how you will budget for these costs moving forward.

To find out more information or if you need advice surrounding the sponsorship of skilled workers, please get in contact with our team of experts.

T: 0330 107 1037

E: contact@hpc.uk.com

LinkedIn: High Performance Consultancy