Just who does get to see CRA data?

GingerBob_3

Last night I watched a TV programme about parents who game the system to try and get their children into the school of their choice. It seemed to me that the local council investigators who try to prevent this heinous crime have access to CRA credit file data about the parents. Anyone else see the programme and come to the same conclusion? If this is right, on what basis do they get to access this data?

PaulW922

They can make an application under the Data Protection Act under specific circumstances. They would need to have grounds to believe that parents were using a false address for schooling. Many public sector agencies can use credit data such as police, HMRC, DWP, etc

If you were unable to get your kid into your local school because other parents were fraudulently claiming to live locally, you would probably think this was a reasonable course of action..

stclair

Interesting read:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220265/eia-data-matching-hb-ctb.pdf

GingerBob_3

PaulW922 wrote: »

They can make an application under the Data Protection Act under specific circumstances. They would need to have grounds to believe that parents were using a false address for schooling. Many public sector agencies can use credit data such as police, HMRC, DWP, etc

If you were unable to get your kid into your local school because other parents were fraudulently claiming to live locally, you would probably think this was a reasonable course of action..

No I wouldn't. Watching those low-life bottom feeders from Havering Council last night made me want to vomit over the TV. "Oh look, she's got a catalogue account" said one of the so-called "investigators" as she poured over the personal financial details of some woman trying to do the best for her child. What is this bloody rotten country coming to? The purpose of credit reference agency data is to allow lenders to make business decisions, not to facilitate the lousy activities of local council snoopers.

stclair

What programme actually was it?

GingerBob_3

stclair wrote: »

Interesting read:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220265/eia-data-matching-hb-ctb.pdf

Yes, interesting, but mainly infuriating. You cannot trust the likes of Experian one iota. I wonder if, when the government approached them, they put up any resistance whatsoever to this use of data for a purpose it was not collected for? A resounding No! would be the answer. In fact, it would not surprise me if Experian regularly tout their grubby wares to governments for purposes far removed from their supposed business of credit referencing.

GingerBob_3

stclair wrote: »

What programme actually was it?

Panorama, BBC1, 7:30pm 24 August

AndyBSG

GingerBob wrote: »

No I wouldn't. Watching those low-life bottom feeders from Havering Council last night made me want to vomit over the TV. "Oh look, she's got a catalogue account" said one of the so-called "investigators" as she poured over the personal financial details of some woman trying to do the best for her child. What is this bloody rotten country coming to? The purpose of credit reference agency data is to allow lenders to make business decisions, not to facilitate the lousy activities of local council snoopers.

Complete opposite opinion to me.

They are committing fraud which has the chance to force a child who is entitled to go to that school to miss out so their child can fraudulently take the other childs place.

I only see one set of 'bottom feeders' there and it's not the council who are enforcing the rules.

Gordon_Hose

AndyBSG wrote: »

Complete opposite opinion to me.

They are committing fraud which has the chance to force a child who is entitled to go to that school to miss out so their child can fraudulently take the other childs place.

I only see one set of 'bottom feeders' there and it's not the council who are enforcing the rules.

Damn right. As a parent who's child didn't get our first place choice I couldn't agree more!!

GingerBob_3

Well we can agree to differ on the issue of school places. The main point here is about misuse of CRA data. Originally it was a guiding principle of data protection that data gathered for a particular purpose should not be used for any other purpose. Of course the Establishment soon discovered how inconvenient this principle was, and it is now quietly ignored.


Data on CRA files is collected for a specific purpose; credit assessment. It is not collected so that council snoopers can investigate mundane matters such as school place applications. The use of CRA data for such purposes such be banned.

tomba_2

Basically ANYONE who has access to one of your credit cards can access your personal details.
This happened to me!
Credit Expert By Experian allowed a 3rd party, using my credit card details (from takeaway or online purchase?), and a fictitious "mother's maiden name" and "mobile number" to sign me up for Experian Report. Using the report details which they now access they were able to answer all Telephone Banking security questions....accounts held, mortgagee, regular payments etc etc.
Scary but true....well done Experian...simple!
Thankfully the Bank repaid me all the losses and agreed that I was not to blame.
Credit Expert By Experian tried to charge me for the first month but saw the error of their ways and stated "we have been the subject of a lot of fraudulent applications".