you already need to show a passport/photo id or your digital visa to get a legitimate job.
Yes, however, even a genuine British photocard driving license does not prove that the holder is a British citizen or even a legal permanent resident, it just confirms the holder has the name on the license. As I said above, according to the 2021 Census about 8 million adults in England and Wales (~13.5%) didn't have a passport when they completed that Census form and expecting them to get one to get a job or rent a home (the government's current declared justifications for their proposed scheme) would be unreasonable.
Employers and landlords are legally required to confirm an applicant's right-to-work or right-to-rent in the UK before offering them a job/property (under the threat of large fines). They cannot just look at someone and say because he/she is obviously British I don't need to check. Imagine that someone wants to rent your home from you while you go to work elsewhere and they are a British citizen (born and raised in the UK) but they have no British passport, then how do you legally check their right-to-rent?
The
current system for that situation is rather silly. It relies on documents that can easily be forged like a birth certificate, a letter from the applicant's employer, a letter from a passport holder in an 'accepted profession' who knows them well, a letter from a UK government department or local council, a letter confirming they’ve been released from prison within the past 6 months etc. But few landlords are trained in detecting document forgeries and some might be hoodwinked by a convincing forgery especially if the applicant has an accomplice who can authenticate it by phone/email.
It's often easier to check the work/rent rights of an immigrant here on a visa than that of a down-on-his-luck British born citizen without a passport. Because the immigrant just goes to the Home Office visa website and sets up a "share code" so you can see on the website when their visa runs out and if they have the right to work etc.
no one is accidentally employing these people.
Most of the people who employ illegal immigrants are indeed criminals, so they don't/won't follow the current/future rules. However, some are hoodwinked, for example: Uber Eats, Deliveroo etc, for whom someone with the right-to-work sets up a delivery rider account and then allows illegal immigrants to use it. In that case, a technological intervention could stop that practice. Beefing up the security of the National Insurance numbercard and requiring delivery riders to regularly verify that they are the holder by sending a selfie/thumbprint on the delivery app, for example, might be one way to clamp down on that kind of illegal working.
the only thing that would stop it is if physical cash didn't exist and every transaction can be tracked.
Yes, but determined criminals can even find ways around that too. For example, working illegal immigrants could be given accommodation off-the-books to save them paying rent. They might also be supplied with food, clothing, fuel etc in place of cash wages. Then there's also the possibility of them being paid in cash with Euros or US$ if Britain abolishes cash.
they will be sub letting too, their name won't be on the tenancy, they will be paying someone cash, someone who doesn;t care they are illegals
Yes, all this goes on. I've come across it.
you realise most the traffickers in france can line people up with work when they arrive here right? GBnews showed that. when they were contacting them via text messages and pretending to be a migrant.
so why would a digital ID put them off coming over or any other nonsense? utter gas lighting from the gov.
this ID has literally nothing to do with immigration and will have 0 impact on it.
I agree with you that the subset of economic migrants and criminals who come to the UK (alongside legitimate asylum seekers) won't be affected by the proposed digital national ID scheme. At best, it might catch out some asylum seekers who are working illegally after deceiving huge faceless companies like Deliveroo etc.
I was pointing out that if we are going to verify everyone's right-to-work and right-to-rent status (as the government has committed itself to doing) then the current system is fallible and if we want to improve it then toughening up the existing National Insurance numbercard system would be fairer and less open to "function creep" than going ahead with a new digital national ID scheme.
