What can be checked by a new employer?

sammy115

My OH starts a new job today. He was offered the position whilst he was being interviewed. The job is in the IT department (senior manager role) with a mortgage co, which is obviously part of the FSA. HE started stressing big style when he received his offer of employment as the employment form he needed to fill in asked for periods that he had claimed benefits for (and they will be writing to the benefits office to check) and also that we needed to have a credit check.

I can appreciate the credit check if he was selling mortgages or giving advice to people, but he isn't. He is also stressing about the benefits side of things. This is not rational - I realise this - but he is someone who at times of great stress will focus irrationally on one thing and he has blown this so out of proportion that neither of us have slept all night.

I am slightly worried about the credit check because after an unlucky twelve months of us both being out of work, we have fallen behind on some of our payments, but I don't understand why a company would need to check with the benefits office about claiming unemployment benefit. Can anyone enlighten me as to why an employer should ask this question?

Astaroth

It will be to check that he was unemployed during that period rather than say working for a company which he got the sack from so now doesnt declare on his CV to avoid the awkward questions

I work for an FSA regulated company too and when employing anyone be it a cleaner, customer service advisor or managing director we must get a complete 3 years of references. If there is any form of unexplained gap or someone refuses to give a reference then we HR will not allow us to employ that person.

Credit checks are done annually plus random credit and police checks through the year. Defaults, IVRs and CCJs are classed as gross misconduct and an instantly dismissable offence. General poor money management may result in disciplinary action.

Whilst I it is fairly obvious why a bank or such wants its staff to have whiter than white records - you cant really tell a customer off for doing something that you routinely do every month too plus with how the tabloid news papers are the headlines would simply say that HSBC employs known fraudster as senior manager and fail to mention that they are head of cleaning services or the bog trolls.

Whilst I know many other large financial services companies are very similar in their methods I dont know how much is a directive from the FSA and how much is a companies own desire for self policing

sammy115

Thanks Astorath. The way my OH has reacted you would think he was a mass murderer. His confidence has been knocked severly over the last two years due to job situation and I think he is just desperately worried that this job will go t**s up too. Thankfully he has nothing to hide at all. I think he is seeing it as a personal slur on his character having had to sign on at all.

Thanks once again for your words of wisdom

Astaroth

Believe me, it is almost as worry and frustrating for those of us trying to recruit someone as the recruit themselves. I have had a number of ideal candidates fail our vetting process and of the 3 that did pass 2 of them had their start date significantly delayed because of the length of time it took for the process to complete (though one was not british so it took a time for international credit and employment checks, the other had spent 3 months in Pakistan and HR wanted proof of what they were doing over there)

As you say, if he has nothing to hide then there is nothing to worry about. It certainly isnt any form of slur as everyone from cleaner to CEO has to go through the same process.

Best of luck to him with the job

Astaroth

We get a DPA release form signed by the applicant. If DWP or such refuse to accept the release form then the person gets declined the job.

May be harsh but there are plenty of posts on this forum of people recommending others not to put short jobs for which they got sacked or it just didnt work out etc on their CV and checking the benefits situation is the only real way of confirming if they were out of work or really did have a job but got sacked for dipping into the till or such.

raq

Astaroth wrote:

It will be to check that he was unemployed during that period rather than say working for a company which he got the sack from so now doesnt declare on his CV to avoid the awkward questions

I work for an FSA regulated company too and when employing anyone be it a cleaner, customer service advisor or managing director we must get a complete 3 years of references. If there is any form of unexplained gap or someone refuses to give a reference then we HR will not allow us to employ that person.

Credit checks are done annually plus random credit and police checks through the year. Defaults, IVRs and CCJs are classed as gross misconduct and an instantly dismissable offence. General poor money management may result in disciplinary action.

Whilst I it is fairly obvious why a bank or such wants its staff to have whiter than white records - you cant really tell a customer off for doing something that you routinely do every month too plus with how the tabloid news papers are the headlines would simply say that HSBC employs known fraudster as senior manager and fail to mention that they are head of cleaning services or the bog trolls.

Whilst I know many other large financial services companies are very similar in their methods I dont know how much is a directive from the FSA and how much is a companies own desire for self policing

I had an application form a couple of years ago for Halifax and the amount of questions on there was unbelievable. The only question they didn't ask was my waist measurements....

Fair comment on most of this , BUT the one part is where you are stating about the defaults, ccj's ext.. There are so many people out there now who has got at least one of these under their belts. News last week stated this year the bankruptcy figure will double. Last years was 140,000.

Astaroth

Cant think of a way of saying this without sounding derogatory so will just say it and take the flaming.

I only have a 50% success rate of getting people through our screening process and this is when I am looking for professionals who will be earning in the region of £40k. Our call centre bosses are obviously looking at people who are generally younger (so more likely to be irresponsible), only earning £13k (so more likely to have financial difficulties though I am aware that anyone can have problems when living beyond their means) and much higher volume of people.

Whilst it has been a pain for me it is a real nightmare for them... it has got to the extent that they will almost exclusively employ through our approved job agencies now as they do all the screening prior to sending the clients application to us because it takes away the time, effort and hassle of trying to recruit 30 new people and after interviewing 60 and offering jobs to half of them only getting 10 people who pass screening but because screening can easily take 3-4 weeks the other 30 you rejected have found alternative employment already.

The only question they didn't ask was my waist measurements....

Well they had to leave something to ask at the interview

sammy115

What I found difficult to understand was that DH was not asked any of these questions at his interview. It was a very relaxed interview and he was offered the job on the Friday before Christmas. He was asked to complete the application form and bring it in on his first day - today! I was at a loss to comprehend that they would then turn round and tell him he hadn't passed the vetting procedure and to go away again.

Like I said my OH has nothing to hide, it is just a question neither of us had ever had to answer before. And yes you are right, we have to sign a form to say that we would allow the DWP to release the information. Much like when you apply for a mortgage. It has just been nice to be able to say that they are looking for unexplained breaks in career.

I have to say that I sympathise with anyone who is trying to get a job, because until this year of downright bad luck and some illegal practices by my former employer (tribunal on Friday) we had never missed a payment etc, but since then things have been difficult. No ccj's though - thank god.

worrypants

what about folk who have had periods of unemployment but not claimed any benefits and have lived off capital etc??

could gaps be explianed this way?

Astaroth

I would guess for our lot they would want to see bank statements etc

With the lass that was in pakistan they wanted to have conformation from the holiday company/ hotels/ tour company etc - not sure if they thought she was at a terrorist training camp or something but....

sammy115

worrypants wrote:

what about folk who have had periods of unemployment but not claimed any benefits and have lived off capital etc??

could gaps be explianed this way?

Actually my OH had some capital but signed on anyway - as it meant he still got his NI stamp paid.