Ban on Recovering Sponsorship Costs from Workers

While most of us were either eating or drinking too much over the Christmas period, the Home Office implemented a ban on employers recovering specific sponsorship costs to skilled workers.  

 Effective from 31 December 2024 employers must not pass on the following costs to skilled workers: 

•  The sponsor licence fee or associated administrative costs for applications made from 31 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 December 2024.

This change aligns with employers not being able to pass on the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) to workers.  

 If an employer asks their worker to pay some or all of the costs above, or if they recoup, or attempt to recoup some or all of the costs then the Home Office may revoke the employer’s sponsorship licence. They may downgrade or suspend the licence first while they consider the matter, but they have stated they reserve the right to revoke the licence immediately without downgrading or suspending it. It could also result in an unlawful deduction of wages claim at Employment Tribunal.  

 This change has been implemented following a growing number of allegations of employers seeking to charge workers for sponsoring them, particularly in the care sector, which has led to the workers falling into debt.  

 These rules will apply to the Skilled Worker route first, with the plan to widen them to other sponsored employment routes however, no timeline has been given on this yet.  

In light of this change it would be advised for you to: 

• review and update any immigration policies you may have;  
• review and update your employment contracts or any other documents referring to passing on these costs to your workers; and 
• consider how you will budget for these costs going forwards.  

 You can view the announcement on this change of policy here, which was published on 28 November 2024, and the updated sponsorship guidance here, which was updated on 31 December 2024. 

 If you would like guidance or advice on these matters or any other HR or employment law matter, please call Practical HR on 01702 216573 or email [email protected].