Security clearance

LUCKYAMB

Hi all this is my first post, I'm not sure if I'm in the right place so apologises if I'm not.
So my question, or more accurately series of questions..
I am a civil servant, and have recently been through a recruitment process and have been successful, however I have received a call to say I need to have security clearance. So having googled it I am really worried that I will not be able to obtain it. I have had various issues with debts, I owe around £7k in total, I was making payments till February this year, however I took some unpaid leave due to my daughter having an operation and wasn't able to keep up the payments. I haven't restarted the repayments, as I then went part time to care for my daughter, and all the creditors wouldn't accept lower payments, tbh I know it's stupid but was hoping they may take me to court as I know the courts have to leave you with some income. I have 2 ccjs on my record, one satisfied. The debts are mainly catalogue and loans(I left a violent relationship with my daughter with no warning to my ex and therefore left without clothes, furniture, etc). The job itself is an opportunity of a lifetime and would enable me to get my life back on track, I was wondering what others experience was? It is a security clearance not developed vetting. I am planning on obviously telling the complete truth but wondered if I should make payments anyway to show I was paying? Or is there no chance I will get through? One of debts is for council tax which when it went to court I requested it was deducted from my wages, would this reflect badly on me? I rent my property and on my credit file I have a couple of things that are kept up to date such as my bank account and phone, but most of those listed show defaulted( I checked today)
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

CIS

One of debts is for council tax which when it went to court I requested it was deducted from my wages, would this reflect badly on me?

The only place an Attachment of Earnings is recorded (other than with the employer) is with the council. I've never comes across any request for details of these by any outside agency.

Tiddlywinks

All you can do is declare everything - including the council tax issues.

If they do a full financial review - CTC and above - then they will ask for copy statements and look at income and outgoings.

You will also have an opportunity to add an explanation of any issues.

Do not be tempted to omit anything as they do check more than just your credit file.

It is impossible to say what the decision will be as it will depend on your answers and the perceived risk. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

uknick

First, may I ask that you think about paragraphs for future posts?

But, more importantly, if you are new to the civil service, I assume you have received a job offer pending clearances. I've never known anybody get a firm job offer and then have to do clearance.

If you are already a civil servant and just transferring between departments, have a word with your existing department's clearance team and see what they say.

Answering your question, "will debts affect my clearance?", I'm afraid they will look at them for a security clearance check.

I found details here;

https://www.gov.uk/security-vetting-and-clearance#personal-finance

Why do you need my/my partner’s financial information?

If you or your partner have previously been, or are currently in serious financial difficulty, or show signs of financial or responsibility, you could be vulnerable to pressure or bribery.

Debts such as mortgages, loans or credit cards will not normally affect your suitability to hold a DV clearance as long as you are able to keep up the repayments properly. However your financial situation will be carefully considered and each case will be judged on its merits.

We may make enquiries if you seem to have large amounts of savings that you cannot explain. The vetting officer will ask you to bring some financial and other documents to the interview (see below for details).

If you have a partner we recommend you share all this information with them. Without your partner’s details we may have insufficient information to make a decision on your clearance. Please be assured that we do not retain any bank or credit card numbers.

But, if they are talking about a basic check I don't think this looks at personal finances. It just makes sure you are who you say you are.

This link gives some detail (sorry, I couldn't find a civil service link);

http://www.arm.co.uk/job-seekers/security-clearance---our-guide.aspx#IV

Enhanced Baseline Standard and Baseline Personnel Security Standard
These clearance levels were formerly Enhanced Basic Check / Basic Check+ and Basic Check. These are not formal security clearance levels and just aim to provide the appropriate level of assurance as to the integrity, trustworthiness and likely reliability of any given individual.

This clearance level is required if you apply for employment in the public sector and Armed Forces (both permanent and temporary). In this instance you should expect to be asked to provide information and documentation to confirm your identity, employment or educational history, Nationality & Immigration status and Criminal record (unspent convictions only).

This level of clearance is also applied to private sector employees who are required to work on government contacts who require access to or knowledge of, government assets protectively marked up to and including CONFIDENTIAL.

There are no access restrictions for this level of disclosure and the result may be sent to the applicant or the employer. It is however a prerequisite to all formal and higher security clearance levels.

I suggest you call the HR contact tomorrow and ask them to confirm the type of check. At least that way you'll know what to expect.

DigForVictory

+1 for tell all financially. Unprompted it'll be much less of an issue than if 'Discovered'.
Unless you want to work the organised crime beat, your finances are not usually held to ruthless scrutiny & that you were paying is another point in favour of your application. Declare it, provide details as soon as requested & try not to worry - after all, you're prepared to tell us - vetting folk are as anonymous & a heck of a lot less allowed to make open public reply back!

marybelle01

They are doing security clearance for a reason - it is no longer standard practice. When I was involved with such checks a few years ago, the issue became a problem when the person tried to hide facts about themselves. It is usually the view that it is secrets that make an individual vulnerable. Because that left them open to blackmail etc., if the wrong person finds out their secrets. The programme I was working on at the time was not "spy quality" or anything like that - rather pedestrian in many ways. But when it was pointed out that the information we held, whilst not "super sensitive" could be damaging or threatening in the wrong hands, it made sense. If there are no secrets, then it is easier to tell your manager that XX has found out about [your debts] and is offering you £5k for YY or they will tell all about you - because the manager already knows. It's like, wahey, go ahead and tell the world because its not a secret, by the way, have you met my policeman friend?

Personally my advice would be to talk to the relevant manager (or write your story if you are uncomfortable about saying it out loud) and be honest about what happened, why and even how you might have dealt with it better. What you owe isn't actually all that much in the great scheme of things, and given that most civil service jobs are not highly sensitive, unless you are going to be a senior advisor to the Treasury, a bit of debt isn't likely to be a major hurdle. The secret will be though, because they find out. So nothing to lose in being completely honest. Including the circumstances of why it happened. Civil servants are human too. Stuff happens.

OverRated

It might depend on what level of security clearance is needed.

LUCKYAMB

Thank you so much for the speedy replies. They have calmed me down. Just to answer a few if the queries, I am already a civil servant however my dept only conducted an enhanced crb when I joined do I didn't have to worry about the financial part (although my finances were in a much better state!). My new job wouldn't as fair as I'm aware involve any financial responsibility, ironically however my current job does.

Sorry about not paragraphing, I was having a slight panic attack and could not think straight, typing slightly manically, but point taken completely.

I suppose the only thing now is to be honest and wait and see. The new job would allow me to work part time for an almost full time salary, which would enable me to be debt free in 3 years, and then I feel I could finally move forward. This is the reason for being so anxious,.

With regards to the type of check I know it isn't developed vetting or basic but the middle which is called security clearance.

I will post what happens, although it may be in two months, for anyone else unfortunate enough to be in a similar position.

Thanks again

Tiddlywinks

marybelle01 wrote: »

Personally my advice would be to talk to the relevant manager (or write your story if you are uncomfortable about saying it out loud) and be honest about what happened, why and even how you might have dealt with it better.

I wouldn't recommend following this advice.

The vetting team will be entirely distant from the management chain and will not have any input into the decision making. Nor will they be able to give an informed opinion on the likelihood of there being a problem... vetting is a specialist are and removed from local decisions to avoid local bias.

If the vetting team discovers an issue during the process then they may discuss this with the team senior manager to establish if the risk is manageable but the local manager will not be in the loop unless s/he is required to be involved in monitoring if the job is conditionally offered.

Do not contact the manager, it will only serve to give an initial impression that will be hard to shake if you get the job.

Speak to HR if you feel the need to get an opinion; otherwise just fill in the form as honestly as possible and hope for the best.

Tiddlywinks

LUCKYAMB wrote: »

My new job wouldn't as fair as I'm aware involve any financial responsibility, ironically however my current job does.

The need for a security check is not related to whether or not you have financial responsibility.

It is about the level of access to controlled information and assessing the risk of an individual being compromised in order to misuse that information.

uknick

LUCKYAMB wrote: »

Sorry about not paragraphing, I was having a slight panic attack and could not think straight, typing slightly manically, but point take

Apology accepted

Good luck