Does a DRO affect you for life?

MrFrugalFever

My two pennies worth.....

when you entered in to the DRO, did you open a new bank current account or have you remained with the same bank throughout the whole process and still to this day? The bank may not have been involved in the DRO (I.e you didn’t owe them any money), but they absolutely would have been notified and your current account withdrawn and replaced with a basic, non-overdraft credit facility account. 

If the above is the case, there may be a slim chance that data has been held by the bank for longer than 6 years reflecting this and thus providing an employer with such information?

It is not unheard of in certain cases for bankruptcy to still be a thing after 15 years, although a DRO is an entirely different form of insolvency, but it is a possibility. Perhaps a SAR to your main bank if the above is correct (you’ve never changed)?

hannahbell

MrFrugalFever said:

My two pennies worth.....

when you entered in to the DRO, did you open a new bank current account or have you remained with the same bank throughout the whole process and still to this day? The bank may not have been involved in the DRO (I.e you didn’t owe them any money), but they absolutely would have been notified and your current account withdrawn and replaced with a basic, non-overdraft credit facility account. 

If the above is the case, there may be a slim chance that data has been held by the bank for longer than 6 years reflecting this and thus providing an employer with such information?

It is not unheard of in certain cases for bankruptcy to still be a thing after 15 years, although a DRO is an entirely different form of insolvency, but it is a possibility. Perhaps a SAR to your main bank if the above is correct (you’ve never changed)?

Thank you, I opened a new one. Would a background checking agency have access to that? I think you meant if I’d stayed with my bank at the time but just curious.

MrFrugalFever

It’s an odd one, I really don’t have an answer to your question. Do you happen to know the source company of the background check? You could request a SAR from them?

There is no reason for a DRO to affect you for any longer than 6 years, it is normally only a court order that can extend an insolvency and it’s affect on you from what I know.

hannahbell

MrFrugalFever said:

It’s an odd one, I really don’t have an answer to your question. Do you happen to know the source company of the background check? You could request a SAR from them?

There is no reason for a DRO to affect you for any longer than 6 years, it is normally only a court order that can extend an insolvency and it’s affect on you from what I know.

Thank you for trying to figure it out with me anyway! I do know them but would be reluctant to do a SAR at this stage. I feel really humiliated by it though, I could understand if it fell within a few months of the 6 years. Job still in the balance.

ToxtethO'Grady

I would definitely think about raising this with the Information Commissioners Office after asking the background check company where they found this information. If they won't I would consider raising a complaint around the principle of storage limitation of data.

Why has someone kept details of your DRO over 6 years? What is their retention policy or the policy of the company they found the information, they should have one for GDPR (if they are in the EU), and you can ask for that to see if they are actually adhering to their own policy. I am amazed at how many times a complaint comes down to "you haven't even followed your own policy!"

You can also ask them to restrict this data under your right to restrict processing. You can ask for this instead of a SAR and they have 1 month to respond

Edit:Sorry if you have already done this @hann@hannahbell have you tried doing a search on your name and DRO - try a few search engines and change it between DRO/Debt Relief Order - it may be as simple as something on a webpage somewhere that is floating around - in that case you can use the right to be forgotten for the search engine as they only control the search not the webpage

hannahbell

ToxtethO'Grady said:

I would definitely think about raising this with the Information Commissioners Office after asking the background check company where they found this information. If they won't I would consider raising a complaint around the principle of storage limitation of data.

Why has someone kept details of your DRO over 6 years? What is their retention policy or the policy of the company they found the information, they should have one for GDPR (if they are in the EU), and you can ask for that to see if they are actually adhering to their own policy. I am amazed at how many times a complaint comes down to "you haven't even followed your own policy!"

You can also ask them to restrict this data under your right to restrict processing. You can ask for this instead of a SAR and they have 1 month to respond

Edit:Sorry if you have already done this @hann@hannahbell have you tried doing a search on your name and DRO - try a few search engines and change it between DRO/Debt Relief Order - it may be as simple as something on a webpage somewhere that is floating around - in that case you can use the right to be forgotten for the search engine as they only control the search not the webpage

Thank you for the information @Toxteth_OGrady I did call the ICO but the call handler wasn’t much use but did say I can raise a complaint. I know in America they have bodies governing background checking agencies (rightly so) but I’m not aware of anything over here. I am reluctant to “kick up a fuss”, but would like to know why/how they’ve kept it over the 6 years. There is nothing I can see online via VPN etc. I’ve called everyone, even The Gazette couldn’t find it on their own systems.

theoretica

hannahbell said:

Goldenlady29 said:

hannahbell said:

I had one and am worried about the impact on job prospects. Are you permanently excluded from certain sectors like financial etc? I may have lost a job due to an old DRO almost a decade ago. I was young and going through a tough time. I’ve tried so hard to build my credit back up but it seems like it will never be good enough?

I currently work in HR for a wealth management, before that I worked for a number of investment banks. As part of the onboarding process, a credit check will be done. If you have a CCJ, IVA or DRO it is highly unlikely that you will be hired. 

Even if it has expired and is nearly a decade old? They have reported on it and even said it is active when it's not and the insolvency service have no idea where they’ve pulled it from and want me to follow-up with them. I would just like to know where they got the information from but they wouldn’t say. No other body has it and I would have approached it differently but I was going off the official guidelines i.e. you’re not discriminated against for life.

Seems a clear case for this: 'The UK GDPR includes a right for individuals to have inaccurate personal data rectified' starting, presumably, with the background check company and potential employer.

sourcrates

I agree with other posters, this information is only supposed to be in the public domain for 6 years, someone, somewhere has not done their due diligence.

I would not take notice of ICO helpline person, I would bang in a complaint regardless, the very reason we have a 6 year time limit on public information is so that we cannot be punished forever for past mistakes, it is a fundamental right under the act.

GDPR was supposed to be the backbone of this legislation, clearly it has failed you here, and you should take the matter further.