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The number of UK employers losing their licence to sponsor migrant workers tripled at the end of 2025 as the Home Office tightened its enforcement of immigration rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than 1,500 employers were stripped of their sponsor licence between October and December, up from 541 in the previous three months, according to official figures. A total of 3,100 revocations during 2025 was the highest since records began in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The clampdown is the result of a government drive to weed out rogue bosses who fuelled a surge in overseas hiring in low-paid sectors such as social care under looser post-Brexit visa rules. Many of these workers have been underpaid or exploited, and some suffering outright fraud and threats. <\/p>\n
But business groups and charities say an indiscriminate, zero-tolerance approach to enforcement is also penalising responsible employers, disrupting local authority care arrangements and leaving migrants vulnerable to further exploitation if they cannot find a new employer quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is also finalising reforms intended to prevent hundreds of thousands of low-paid migrants settling in the UK \u2014 and potentially qualifying for benefits \u2014 unless they can demonstrate that they are making an economic contribution to the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, receives frequent appeals for help from care workers who must find a new sponsor within 60 days of a licence revocation or lose their right to stay in the UK. <\/p>\n
She says the Home Office is failing to catch some abusive employers, who find ways to make their payroll pass inspection, while clamping down on others without good reason. <\/p>\n
In one recent case, a large care home group had its sponsor licence revoked because four workers out of 400 appeared to be earning less than the rules required, she said, due to maternity leave, sick leave and correction of a previous overpayment. The revocation was reversed after the employer launched a judicial review.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no proportionality or consideration of the impact on the sponsored workers or those they support,\u201d Townson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Raina Summerson, group chief executive at care provider Agincare, said the Home Office had revoked the licence of its live-in care arm, which employs 58 sponsored workers, in January without offering any explanation or right of appeal. It was reinstated \u2014 also without explanation \u2014 only after the group spent some \u00a3100,000 challenging the decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cMigrant workers must not be punished for the crimes of their employers,\u201d said Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, a charity focused on in-work poverty.\u00a0\u201cEvery licence revocation means all migrant workers sponsored by that employer will lose their income and risk losing their immigration status,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While centred on the care sector, where abuses have been widespread, data obtained by the Work Rights Centre through a freedom of information request shows that licence revocations have also been rising in other low-paid sectors, such as hospitality and construction, as well as in the tech sector and other professional areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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