Day One. New Face. No Idea Who They Are.
agency workers in the UK
penalty per illegal worker
to verify with Certifyd
The reality of temp workers in the UK.
Identity verification for temp workers means more than checking a name against a booking sheet. Certifyd uses bi-directional authentication — the hiring site and the temp worker cryptographically prove their identity to each other in real time. When a temp arrives, the system verifies not just who they are, but that they hold an active assignment with the staffing agency that sent them and are authorised to work at that location. The result is a tamper-proof, auditable record of every assignment: who arrived, when, where, and under whose contractual authority.
The UK temporary staffing industry employs over 1.2 million workers through more than 30,000 recruitment agencies. On any given day, tens of thousands of people walk onto work sites where nobody knows them personally. The hiring manager has a name on a spreadsheet. The temp has a lanyard with a photo. Neither side has verified the other.
Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, employers bear joint liability for right-to-work checks — even when a worker arrives through an agency. The Fair Work Agency, launching April 2026, will have the power to inspect any business and demand evidence of every worker’s identity and right to work. Relying on the agency to ‘have done the checks’ is not a statutory excuse.
The gap between booking a temp and knowing who actually turns up is a compliance blind spot. Agencies verify at onboarding, but there is no mechanism to confirm that the person who arrives at the site is the same person who was onboarded. Certifyd closes that gap with device-bound, bi-directional authentication — both parties verify each other in real time, with organisational membership and assignment authority confirmed cryptographically.
This is broken.
Here's why.
Agencies send replacement temps with no notice — the site has no way to verify who actually arrives.
Right-to-work liability falls on the hiring employer, even when the agency sourced the worker.
Temp workers rotate between multiple sites, creating gaps in accountability and audit trails.
When incidents occur, there’s often no verifiable record of who was on site and under whose authority.
Simple verification.
Every time.
Temp worker arrives on site — both parties open Certifyd and authenticate via their registered device
Each person’s identity is cryptographically verified to the other — bi-directional, not one-way
The system confirms the temp’s active assignment with their staffing agency, right-to-work status, and authority to be at that site
A tamper-proof record is created: who, when, where, and under whose contractual authority
Ready to see it in action?
Book a demo or tell us about your needs.
“At £50–200 per background check, we were spending thousands a year just to verify temps. Some checks got skipped. That’s the reality for millions of small businesses.”— Director, temp staffing agency
Common questions.
Both. The agency is responsible for conducting right-to-work checks at onboarding. But the hiring employer has a legal duty to verify that the person who arrives is who they claim to be and is authorised to work in the UK. Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, the hiring employer cannot simply rely on the agency having done the checks — if a worker is found to be illegal, both parties may face civil penalties of up to £60,000 per worker.
Last-minute substitutions are common in temporary staffing — sickness, no-shows, and scheduling changes mean a different person may arrive. Without real-time verification, the site manager has no way to confirm the substitute’s identity or assignment. Certifyd links each temp to their device-bound identity and active agency assignment, so the site knows immediately whether the person who arrives is authorised to be there.
The Fair Work Agency (launching April 2026) will have the power to enter any business and demand evidence of right-to-work checks for every worker on site. Certifyd creates tamper-proof verification records for every temp worker assignment — who was verified, when, where, by whom, and under whose organisational authority. These records are audit-ready and exportable, giving you compliance evidence that goes beyond a photocopied passport in a filing cabinet.
Yes. A temp worker’s Certifyd identity is theirs — it’s bound to their device, not to any single agency. When they register with a new agency, that agency adds them as a member with the appropriate role. The worker can hold memberships across multiple agencies simultaneously, and each agency can manage, revoke, or update their membership independently. The worker’s cryptographic identity remains consistent across all of them.
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Verify every temp before they start
Book a demo to see how Certifyd works for your team, or tell us about your verification needs and we'll get back to you within 24 hours.
Read: The Temp Worker Loophole