Services · Workforce
How exposed is your sponsor licence?
Eight questions on the duties that actually get licences revoked. Not the ones in the guidance you were sent when you applied — the ones the Home Office is currently acting on.
Current at September 2026. England.
The eight
Is every sponsored worker actually doing the job on their Certificate of Sponsorship?
The single most dangerous question on this page. A worker doing a role that does not match the occupation code or job description on the CoS is a mandatory ground for revocation — not discretionary, not a warning first.
Does everyone clear the hourly floor, in every pay period?
Two thresholds apply, and both must be met — the annual figure and the hourly one. The hourly rate bites independently: a worker on the annual minimum who is rostered above full-time hours falls below the hourly floor even though the salary looks right.
| Route | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| Health and Care Worker visa | £25,000 | £12.82 |
| Standard Skilled Worker | £33,400 | £17.13 |
Can you produce the evidence that you told your sponsored workers their UK employment rights?
A duty introduced on 6 March 2026, and the one most providers do not yet know about. Sponsors must have HR systems or processes demonstrating they provide this information — minimum wage, working time, pension auto-enrolment, statutory leave and pay, health and safety, trade union membership, equality duties, grievance procedures — and must keep records of having done so.
Do you know which reports are ten working days and which are twenty?
The rule is simple once you see it: changes about a worker are ten working days; changes about your organisation are twenty. Most late reports come from getting that backwards.
| 10 working days — worker | 20 working days — organisation |
|---|---|
| Does not start within 28 days · absent without permission more than 10 consecutive working days · unpaid or reduced-pay absence over 4 weeks in a year · salary reduced · change of job within the same code · change of normal work location · leaves or you stop sponsoring them | Change of key personnel — authorising officer, key contact, level 1 or 2 users · organisation name, address or contact details · structure, branches, linked entities · changes to registration or accreditation status · insolvency · mergers and takeovers · convictions |
Do your CQC record and your Sponsor Management System record tell the same story?
Active CQC registration, and actually carrying on at least one regulated activity, is a condition of sponsoring care workers in England. If you do not meet it, the worker's application is refused outright.
Could you hand over a complete file for any sponsored worker, this afternoon?
Not the file you would assemble if given a week. The one that exists now.
Are you recovering any sponsorship cost from workers — in any form?
Sponsors must not pass sponsorship fees or associated administrative costs to the sponsored worker where that is prohibited. In this sector it usually appears as a repayment or clawback clause rather than as a direct charge, which is why providers do not recognise it as the same thing.
If a compliance officer arrived at a service user's home tomorrow, would that be a problem?
Visits can be announced or unannounced, and can also be conducted remotely by video. Officers may verify what you said in your application, photograph the location, speak to any sponsored worker, inspect records and systems, and run checks on workers who are not sponsored at all.
What happens if it goes wrong
| The position | |
|---|---|
| Right of appeal | There is none. The remedy is an error correction request, then judicial review — a challenge to legality, not to the merits, and rarely successful |
| Suspension | No certificates can be assigned, and you are removed from the public register of sponsors — visible to commissioners, lenders and insurers while enquiries run |
| Cooling-off | 12 months before reapplying. 24 months if revoked more than once, or if you surrendered the licence to avoid revocation — surrendering does not avoid the wait |
| Your workers | Permission is normally curtailed to 60 days from the decision, or to the visa expiry if sooner. "Normally" — a shorter period or none at all is possible where deception is involved |
| Illegal working penalties | £45,000 per worker for a first breach, £60,000 for a repeat |
What the Home Office says it is acting on
Its own stated reasons for revoking care sector licences are underpayment of workers, facilitating circumvention of the immigration rules, and failure to provide the promised work. Practitioners add discrepancies between the roles on certificates and the duties actually performed, and the absence of a genuine vacancy. Note what is not on that list: nothing about the quality of care. This is an employment-records and payroll exercise, and it is won or lost in the file.
A revoked licence takes the workforce with it.
Thirty minutes, no charge. Tell us which duties you are not certain about and we will tell you what a compliance visit would find.
Text or WhatsApp
07426 919823If it is easier to write it down than say it out loud, send a message.
Email us
[email protected]No documents needed first. If you already have an action or a suspension, say so.
The question, before it becomes a problem.