Identity cards for asylum seekers will not help recruiters check candidates’ eligibility to work in the UK, according to Russell Crawford, managing director of Angel Human Resources.

Application Registration Cards (ARCs) will be issued to asylum seekers after six months, once permission to work has been granted.

Each card contains details including the bearer’s fingerprint, name and photograph – an updateable chip holds the address. Although ARCs should help agencies check identification, they do not provide details about the card holder’s skills or employment history.

Crawford said: ‘The government must clarify the rules to help agencies and employers who are approached by asylum seekers looking for work. Checking an individual asylum seeker’s credentials is enormously complex, so anything that helps us establish whether someone is eligible to work is welcomed.’

ARCs form part of home secretary David Blunkett’s immigration reforms and replace the Standard Acknowledgement Letter (SAL), which was easy to forge and damage.

But asylum seekers who have already been in the UK for six months are unlikely to be issued with an identity card, even though they are more likely to be eligible to work.