Date Of Birth on Application Forms

Birkonian

I have an application form from a local company which asks my date Of Birth.

Isn't this illegal now and do I have to fill it in?

InsideInsurance

It is perfectly legal to ask you. If the ageism laws have come in then it would be illegal for them to make a decision of if to employ you based on it. Due to this some would not ask it in fear of being accused of ageism


It generally is fairly easy to estimate someone's age anyway based on things like dates at school/ qualification dates/ work experience.

Legitimately they can also need it given minimum wage varies by age.

Naf

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Legitimately they can also need it given minimum wage varies by age.

This wouldn't be needed until you were offered a job though.

OP, are you worried somewhere generally, or somewhere specific might hold your age against you in the selection process?

welshgirl_michelle

i know you dont have to put your DOB on your CV like you used to - age discrimination act and all that

SarEl

Of course nothing requires you to fill in anything in the box. Just because you are asked does not mean you have to reply.

Naf

SarEl wrote: »

Of course nothing requires you to fill in anything in the box. Just because you are asked does not mean you have to reply.

But, of course, nothing requires them to offer you an interview if you don't fill in what they ask for...
I'm not sure why you would have a problem entering your age, personally. If the were going to be ageist they could just as well do it from employment dates, education dates or just from seeing you at interview...

mountainofdebt

My thoughts are that if you are going to be that arsy about giving your date of birth, would I really want to run the risk of employing you.

DVardysShadow

welshgirl_michelle wrote: »

i know you dont have to put your DOB on your CV like you used to - age discrimination act and all that

It has never been compulsory on a CV. What makes you think it ever was?

SarEl

mountainofdebt wrote: »

My thoughts are that if you are going to be that arsy about giving your date of birth, would I really want to run the risk of employing you.

What on earth is "arsy" about accidentally failing to notice the box that asked for your date of birth - probably the lest important question on the form? I didn't suggest writing "I refuse to answer this question" across the box - that would be arsy. Simply not filling in the box is not. If what is in this box - or isn't in this box - is the most crucial thing the employer wants to know, rather than your skills and experience for the job and how good an employee you are likley to be, then the employer has some weird priorities.

bluenoseam

i think the point they're trying to get across is that if you're worried about filling the box in due to either embarassment over your age, the fact you generally try to keep it a secret or the fact you tell people you're 35 when really you're 45 it's not exactly a good thing - cos lets be fair, this isn't a case of forgetting to fill it in, it's more a case of deciding you don't want to either fearing bias or your own vanity.

You don't HAVE to answer it, but i think that with some employers they will start to read between the lines, in a jobs market the way it currently is, the less you can do to allow them to do so the better your chances become - besides, does it really matter if they know your DOB or not? Some companies may also use it for analytical use, we all know there's multiple applications per post, so some may be using application data to look into the effectiveness of their processes, others may have a limited budget and as a result would prefer U21 applicants due to the lower NMW - which while some will point out the obvious discrimination there, isn't unheard of.

Snuggles

SarEl wrote: »

What on earth is "arsy" about accidentally failing to notice the box that asked for your date of birth - probably the lest important question on the form? I didn't suggest writing "I refuse to answer this question" across the box - that would be arsy. Simply not filling in the box is not. If what is in this box - or isn't in this box - is the most crucial thing the employer wants to know, rather than your skills and experience for the job and how good an employee you are likley to be, then the employer has some weird priorities.

But if I saw that a potential employee had "missed" a box on an application form - something which you would think they would take a great deal of care over - I would be concerned about their attention to detail / carelessness.

If the question is asked, I would just answer it. They can work out your age anyway from exam dates etc.