Your CV and Identity theft

liney

Obtaining an NI number/British Birth certificate or a passport is the prove eligibility for work in the UK. To avoid discrimination, you must ask all applicants for the information at the same time, so for most this is the point of registration.

If the agency did not ask for this information until they offered work, they could be firstly offering work to persons not authorised to work here, and secondly be unable to offer their clients temps at short notice as the paper work would have to be done before they arrived on site. This does not only apply to agencies, but any employer, but given that a permanent job is likely to be offered with notice to start it is more realistic to only ask the applicant who is offered the position for the information. Someone will now say agencies should only ask temps for this information before they start work, but as most act as an Employment Agency, and as an Employment Business supplying both temps and permanent personnel, they have to treat all applicants equally.

According to the Data Protection Act i believe you should keep records for persons who worked for you (ie Personnel records) for 6 years, but applicants who were unsuccessful can be deleted/shredded after 12 months.

Anyhoooo, no need for a date of birth or NI number on a CV. Location; town is sufficient as long as you supply email/phone numbers for initial contact. At least that way your CV with personal details is only given to persons who actually may be interested in you instead of anyone you have sent it to specutively.

DCFC79

liney so its just a way of making sure that the person applying for said position is legally able to work in the country, is that what your saying or have a misunderstood it

CCFC_80

liney wrote: »

Obtaining an NI number/British Birth certificate or a passport is the prove eligibility for work in the UK. To avoid discrimination, you must ask all applicants for the information at the same time, so for most this is the point of registration.

If the agency did not ask for this information until they offered work, they could be firstly offering work to persons not authorised to work here, and secondly be unable to offer their clients temps at short notice as the paper work would have to be done before they arrived on site. This does not only apply to agencies, but any employer, but given that a permanent job is likely to be offered with notice to start it is more realistic to only ask the applicant who is offered the position for the information. Someone will now say agencies should only ask temps for this information before they start work, but as most act as an Employment Agency, and as an Employment Business supplying both temps and permanent personnel, they have to treat all applicants equally.

According to the Data Protection Act i believe you should keep records for persons who worked for you (ie Personnel records) for 6 years, but applicants who were unsuccessful can be deleted/shredded after 12 months.

Anyhoooo, no need for a date of birth or NI number on a CV. Location; town is sufficient as long as you supply email/phone numbers for initial contact. At least that way your CV with personal details is only given to persons who actually may be interested in you instead of anyone you have sent it to specutively.

Sorry but still don't get it ! Surely you can provide evidence of eligibility to work in the UK and also you bank a/c details when you are offered work by the agency. If you cannot, then the agency simply does not employ you and they can take on someone who has the correct documentation/paperwork. Why is that so difficult ?
Again someone will probably respond "oh it saves the agency time" which is surely not as important as compromising peoples ID security.

briona

liney wrote: »

If the agency did not ask for this information until they offered work, they could be firstly offering work to persons not authorised to work here, and secondly be unable to offer their clients temps at short notice as the paper work would have to be done before they arrived on site.

You can't just walk into an agency and find work! In order to use the services of an agency, you must first be registered with them, and it's at this point that they ask for proof of ID, work visas if necessary, and an NI number.

When registering with agencies, I was asked to attend in person and bring along my passport and my National Insurance number for them to check and take a copy of. I would NOT have supplied this information by post or email but if I was unwilling to supply the information AT ALL, the agency wouldn't have taken me on.

CCFC_80

briona wrote: »

You can't just walk into an agency and find work! In order to use the services of an agency, you must first be registered with them, and it's at this point that they ask for proof of ID, work visas if necessary, and an NI number.

When registering with agencies, I was asked to attend in person and bring along my passport and my National Insurance number for them to check and take a copy of. I would NOT have supplied this information by post or email but if I was unwilling to supply the information AT ALL, the agency wouldn't have taken me on.

So then, agencies want to do their bit to increase the prospect of more ID fraud by insisting that they have access to your NI number,passport number,copy of your passport and bank account details when they are more then likely not to offer you any employment. This information should only be available to them if and when you work for them.

briona

andy46 wrote: »

So then- agencies want to do their bit to increase the prospect of more ID fraud by insisting that they have access to your NI number,passport number,copy of your passport and bank account details when they are more then likely not to offer you any employment.

Actually, the agency I'm with found me employment within two weeks of registering with them, and very well-paid employment at that.

You could be knocked down by a bus tomorrow – does that stop you crossing roads? No. Equally, there are numerous ways for your identity to be compromised – unshredded bills, mis-delivered mail, spyware on your PC, phishing, keystroke logging, applications made in your name by (ex-)flatmates/partners, cloned cards etc – so I'm not going to waste my time get hung up over making my NI number available to an agency.

In today's economic climate I would much rather have a job than not, and if that job comes through an agency, then so be it. The Government has already proved (many times!) that they are more than capable of losing whole databases with similar information on it, so technically you're no safer off claiming benefits than you would be looking for a job.