The compulsory digital ID scheme, proving a worker’s right to work in the UK, has been dropped by the government amid widespread backlash.

The government has said that digital IDs, initially planned for launch in 2029, will no longer be mandatory for proving the right to work. Workers will instead have the choice of using other documents to verify their identity, such as an electronic visa or passport.

First announced in September 2025, the government planned to introduce digital ID cards in a bid to cut down on illegal working and make it easier for people to use government services.

It said that the new ID, which would be downloaded and used on smartphones, would make it harder for people who lack the right to find work from earning money, described as one of the key ‘pull factors’ for people who come to the UK illegally. 

Under the plans, anyone starting a job would have been required to show their digital ID, which would be checked against a central database of those ­entitled to work in the UK. 

In a backtrack to these plans, a government spokesperson told The Times: “Stepping back from mandatory use cases will deflate one of the main points of ­contention. We do not want to risk there being cases of some 65-year-old in a rural area being barred from ­working because he hasn’t downloaded this app.”

Since its announcement last year, the scheme has irked privacy campaigners. Big Brother Watch, for instance, said it could “turn us into a checkpoint society that is wholly unBritish”. 

According to the BBC, polling showed that public support for digital ID collapsed after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement in September, with nearly three million people having signed a parliamentary petition opposing their introduction.

This reversal does not mean the broader digital ID scheme is being scrapped. The government said it remains committed to modernising digital right-to-work checks digitally and will set out details on the scheme following a “full public consultation, which will launch shortly”.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister who is responsible for the digital ID introduction, told The Times: “I’m confident that this time next year polling will be in a much better place on digital ID than it is today.”

Meanwhile transport secretary Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the government was still “absolutely committed” to mandatory digital right-to-work checks, including through biometric passports, and said digitising the system would help crack down on illegal working.

She said: “At the moment we’ve got a paper-based system – there are no proper records kept. It makes it very difficult then to target enforcement action sensibly against businesses that are employing illegal workers.”