Issues with new employer requiring personal information

s.jones121

I have recently been offered a new job and have consented to background checks, i said i was unemployed for five months and they want evidence of this, but i didn't claim and benefits (was living on savings with some help from my partner). The issue i have is they want a bank statement spanning that length of time which makes me feel uncomfortable as i find it very invasive. Also my partner didn't have a bank account at that time so let him use my bank details for his employer to pay his wages into my account, this will obviously show up on my statement. Not only that, when looking through my account history i found a couple of jobs i had forgot about that i had for such a short time but didn't declare (because i didn't remember having them) one was less than 1 week, the other was 1 month. I am upset because i genuinely forgot to incorporate them and even if i had remembered them, wouldn't have declared them as they were crap jobs that i walked out of fairly swiftly and didn't want it to look bad on me. What do i do, do i tell them and hope they will understand or am i doomed?

TELLIT01

Leaving jobs off a CV is never a good idea as it can come back to bite you, as you have discovered. "Forgot"you had these jobs?? Any prospective employer is unlikely to believe that one. Yes, 2 very short terms of employment doesn't look good, but it looks a heck of a lot better than being caught lying.
I can understand your feelings about providing bank statements to a prospective employer. I really don't see what use they could make of them.

jadziad

Depends on who the employer is, and the type of background check, i.e. natsec vetting.

HappyMJ

s.jones121 wrote: »

I have recently been offered a new job and have consented to background checks, i said i was unemployed for five months and they want evidence of this, but i didn't claim and benefits (was living on savings with some help from my partner). The issue i have is they want a bank statement spanning that length of time which makes me feel uncomfortable as i find it very invasive. Also my partner didn't have a bank account at that time so let him use my bank details for his employer to pay his wages into my account, this will obviously show up on my statement. Not only that, when looking through my account history i found a couple of jobs i had forgot about that i had for such a short time but didn't declare (because i didn't remember having them) one was less than 1 week, the other was 1 month. I am upset because i genuinely forgot to incorporate them and even if i had remembered them, wouldn't have declared them as they were crap jobs that i walked out of fairly swiftly and didn't want it to look bad on me. What do i do, do i tell them and hope they will understand or am i doomed?

I'd just feign ignorance and say I don't have bank statements which for me would be true to an extent as most of mine are now paperless.

I do have a savings account so I'd give them 6 months worth of print outs from that one which shows nothing of interest.

The account which runs to a dozen pages per month has gambling transactions on it. I wouldn't show it to anyone.

shortcrust

I'd refuse, but in my line of work that would be a very reasonable response. People would be aghast that I'd even been asked. Maybe different for the OP's job?

No one's going to buy that you forgot about the jobs. I'd keep shtum if you possibly can.

sangie595

I don't think you have a lot of choice here. You either provide proof that you were unemployed (or sort of unemployed, since you were in fact working some of the time), give them the bank statements, or fail the background check and don't get the job. So you tell them the truth and give them what they want and explain it, risking failing the check. Or fail the check for not doing. So really, not a lot of difference, is there?

Marktheshark

Are we talking some mega paid job here or some minimum wage slave shed ?

HappyMJ

sangie595 wrote: »

I don't think you have a lot of choice here. You either provide proof that you were unemployed (or sort of unemployed, since you were in fact working some of the time), give them the bank statements, or fail the background check and don't get the job. So you tell them the truth and give them what they want and explain it, risking failing the check. Or fail the check for not doing. So really, not a lot of difference, is there?

How do you prove you were unemployed if due to your partners earnings makes you ineligible for any benefits?

If I'm not earning my bank statements would be blank. I do have an unused account if they want to see 6 months worth of bank statements showing a zero balance.

cte1111

HappyMJ wrote: »

How do you prove you were unemployed if due to your partners earnings makes you ineligible for any benefits?

If I'm not earning my bank statements would be blank. I do have an unused account if they want to see 6 months worth of bank statements showing a zero balance.

I've been in a similar position, e.g. not employed but also not claiming benefits, in the past. For job references, you can use a personal referee who can back up what you said you were doing, e.g. not working.

Some employers are very keen on not having any gaps at all in your history, so a personal reference is sometimes the only way to meet their requirements. I think it is often part of the organisation having an ISO in HR, which they take to require this. I've also had an agency requiring similarly detailed history for reasons like this.

sangie595

HappyMJ wrote: »

How do you prove you were unemployed if due to your partners earnings makes you ineligible for any benefits?

If I'm not earning my bank statements would be blank. I do have an unused account if they want to see 6 months worth of bank statements showing a zero balance.

You appear to be missing the point. Maybe your bank statements would be blank if you were unemployed. But they don't want to see your bank statements. They want to see the OP's bank statements - and those are not blank!

HappyMJ

sangie595 wrote: »

You appear to be missing the point. Maybe your bank statements would be blank if you were unemployed. But they don't want to see your bank statements. They want to see the OP's bank statements - and those are not blank!

Maybe then the OP can find an excuse not to show the non-blank bank statements. I'm just throwing ideas into the hat. Maybe the OP has a savings account they don't use which can show they haven't had amounts being credited from their partners employment.

If I actually had to show every bank statement I had for the last 6 months it would overwhelm anyone. I currently have 17 current accounts and many more savings accounts.