Will digital ID cards stop illegal working?
Identity cards are always displayed with suspicion in the UK. For some people in the 1930s, the images of authoritarian states like Germany and Jackboots “Can we see your articles please?”
There were two terms in the UK, where we had compulsory identity cards. The first was in the First World War. Second, it was from the beginning of the Second World War to the early 1950s.
When the system was abandoned in 1952, a masterpiece in Guardian said: “We don’t like such things in this country. A better smuggling and inefficiency than a very small bureaucratic intervention to the individual.”
In 2006, he was born with familiar concerns about the attempt to bring an identity plan, migration and illegal work and concerns about the fraud and benefit of benefit and terrorism. When they came to power in 2010, he was scrapped by the coalition government.
Fifteen years later, Sir Keir Starmer proposes something a little different. It’s not an ID card, it’s a digital identity scheme. It is a way to prove your identity and the right to work in the UK by using modern smartphone technology.
The government also says, “For those who can’t use a smartphone, it will allow them to work with their design in the heart,” the government says. It is not yet clear how to achieve this, but it may mean that non -smartphones have to use a physical identity card.
Digital identity is sold by Downing Street as a way of reducing illegal work by immigrants who have no right to earn wages in the UK.
The rules are already – in theory – quite difficult. If they do not make the right checks, employers can be fined $ 60,000 per illegal employee.
The government says the proposed new digital identity – there will be no cost to the user – “Who is someone and the status of residence in this country will be the authorized proof of the status”.
The name of the owner will include information about the date of birth, photo and national or residence status.
This new proposal is a proof of the identity plan, rather than including a physical card depending on a national identity record. In addition to proved a person’s right to work, the government promises in the future that it will facilitate resorting to services such as driver licenses, child care and prosperity.
Ministers say that one of the digital identity at the end of the parliament “will be mandatory when checking the right to work. They claim that this will reduce the “key pulling factors” for people who come to the UK on small boats.
“If you don’t have a digital identity, you will not be able to work in the UK,” the Prime Minister said. “It’s so simple.”
A safer way for people to prove their identity can reduce illegal work and avoid the proliferation of counterfeit documents in circulation.
Currently, borrowing, stealing or using someone else’s national insurance number is quite easy and this shadow is part of the problem in the economy – but the idea will make it difficult to abuse this system – in a picture – theory.
However, Jill Rutter of the Government Institute emphasized the need for “more powerful labor market implementation” besides the plan.
“People pay cash, people work in what the prime minister calls ‘shadow economy’.” He said.
“This means that people will not have an excuse not to control people by saying ‘I thought they were British’, and people will not be able to use the fake identity so easily.
“That’s why it will help, but I don’t think it is a panacea in every absolute problem.”
The scheme will take time. For 2028, where the next general election will take place, the phrase “according to the end of the parliament”. This is not something that can be done within a year.
Most EU countries have some kind of identity scheme. One of the most modern ones is Estonia, where the focal point is less to prevent illegal work and is less on easy access to things such as benefits and health records.
However, illegal work is still a problem in countries such as France and Germany, both of which have a long -standing identity plans. One of the factors drawn to England for the French, small boats, is easier to work in England than in France.
