Getting a Job After a Trust Deed

gormenghastly

Hi there, just looking for a bit of advice. I've had a trust deed previously which has since been discharged. Now, I know that this stays on your credit files for 6 years etc, but the area I'm having problems in is actually in finding work. It seems that a lot of potential employers, even those NOT in the financial services industry, use a negative credit score to reject my application. I totally understand and accept that I'll never get a job in financial services, but is it not discriminatory for them to reject me in any other industry on the basis of a credit check? It feels unnecessary and I get the feeling that they use this to check my 'trustworthiness', which this doesn't really reflect in my opinion. Plenty of people have gotten themselves into financial bother and are otherwise excellent candidates for jobs, so why should they be discriminated against when it's not relevant to that industry? I'm finding it extremely disheartening and upsetting as I've made the effort to get myself out of the mire I was in as opposed to just running from my debts, and just want to be able to earn more money to avoid the something similar happening in the future, and this isn't helping one bit.
Any help or advice would be appreciated, thanks.

dwightvanman

Depending on what you want to do in financial services, my firm wouldn't necessarily have a problem taking you on just because of the trust deed. We're a broker firm coering mortgages, commercial mortgages, protection and overseas mortgages, but its not salaried, its commission based.

Generally I agree with you - the trust deed is irrelevent to your ability to do the job. Even in FS, it removes the financial pressure which might cloud your judgement in providing proper advice.

Good luck!

lilybankrupt

Depressingly this seems to be more and more common :mad:

I was looking at a job with Royal Mail - not handling post or money or anything - but it seems they have a blanket credit check at application. Same with all the utility firms, I was looking at a junior office based role with National Power.

I was then talking to a friend who works for a Royal Mail supplier, and all their staff have to be credit checked too, which RM insist on. This isn't just senior managers or finance, it's every single role in a large manufacturing company.

It's all to do with employee insurance apparently, presumably the credit reference agencies have sold credit checks as a good way of assessing someone's honesty to insurance firms :mad::mad:

If you have a look at the corporate pages of people like Experian it talks about 'reputational risk' and 'risk of fraud' in relation to credit checks. It never quite says bad score = less honest but that's the implication :mad::mad::mad:

I've now stopped looking at any of the big companies and instead I'm focusing on small local firms, simply on the basis they are less likely to have the resources to do checks :-/

gormenghastly

Is that not discrimination though? Surely there's something that can be done about that?

lilybankrupt

gormenghastly wrote: »

Is that not discrimination though? Surely there's something that can be done about that?

Sadly whilst I think it's incredibly unfair I don't think it's discrimination - I guess employers can set whatever criteria they like (apart from must be male or white or whatever) for jobs.

Apart from where being BR could expose someone to the risk of blackmail I fail to see why its relevant to jobs, or indeed to house or car insurance (where it's often a problem too even if paying upfront).

It'll probably change one day, in the same way being divorced used to be frowned on as a 'character failing' for jobs but is now irrelevant - but too late for us :-/

SomebodyToldMe

That really is depressing to hear.
I suppose you could press them after interview or application, as to reasons why you were rejected.
If BR is mentioned, maybe Citizens Advice could do something, or point the way?
Perhaps ask your MP to look into it?

xHannahx

Are they even allowed to do a credit check unless it's relevant to the industry?
DBS checks aren't allowed now unless it's a specific industry so quite what relevance a credit check has to being a postman.
I could understand in a financial industry, but something that has no relevance to finance.