Failed Experian background check, company refuse to tell me why

julianrob77

Im hoping someone can help me here.

I applied for a job recently, and to my delight I was so impressive they offered me a senior web developer position!
Apparently, my 'skills matrix' score was incredably high.. so the interviewer said.

This was obviously excellent news. They informed me that they needed me to start 4 weeks from confirming, but that there was a background check to complete.

The guy interviewing me said this was primarily for ID purposes, and a basic DBS check. I did have an unspent diriving conviction, which I declared to the company director seperatley, as well as the fact that I have bad credit- which in fact, was down to an error made by my bank some years ago. 

he said to me in an email "i dont see this being a problem" and the interviewer told me I had been praised for my honesty on this matter.

the background check experian carried out was ID, residence history, work history, criminal history (basic DBS).

I contacted my former employers, they were happy to provide references, and these were basic ones (i.e. just job title, and length of time). 

The company came back to me friday last week saying the check had come back as 'unsatisfactory'. They have refused to tell me why I have failed this.

I signed a contract, provided to me on the same day that they issued the offer letter. I was led to belive this was a light touch check, and as I said, I made sure that they knew anything that could be a deal breaker, which led me into a false sense of security, handing in my notice at my other job (which was crap but well paid!).

I did realise that I had omitted a 2 week job from my CV, and i have since told them this was actually taken off my CV during a review with a professional CV writing service, which they are happy to confirm. I did not intent to mislead them deliberatley- if, that is the reason why they have said that I failed this check. But they are stonewalling. I was in fact dismissed from this role, needing to attend a pre booked medical appointment, and they refused to let me attend, forcing me to take a sick day, at which point they terminated me on the spot. thats pretty illegal, was a horrific experience and its understandable why I would not want to add it to my CV. but I didnt mean to mislead anyone on purpose.

However, for all I know, that has nothing to do with the reason why I have not passed the check!

I have submitted an official Subject Access Request, to at least try and get my hands on the information to find out why this has happened. Its absolutley rotten they are not telling me why, expeicially becuase I quit my job to join them, they were the ones setting the start date to me rather than waiting for the check to complete. I feel horribly misled, and they have left me unemployed with no answers as to the reason why.

Thanks.

TELLIT01

They haven't left you unemployed, you did that by handing in your notice before the job offer was confirmed.  You were told that checks had to be made and shouldn't have acted until they were completed.  Leaving off any employment information can be seen as a red flag by employers, and is not a great idea.  That employment having been terminated by the employer makes it look even worse.

I'm genuinely sorry you find yourself in this situation but, other than the SAR, I doubt there is much you can do.

MattMattMattUK

Have you looked at your report with Experian? CCJs, missed payments, high levels of debt etc. are all deemed high risk factors, could any of those apply? If the bank made an error then they should correct your credit report to reflect that.

MalMonroe

Hi, I am sorry that you are now in this awful position and realise that yours is not a straightforward case by any means but you may be able to get some advice from acas. Details in following link -

https://www.acas.org.uk/contact

Have a chat with someone there and see what they say. 

I think it's strange that the prospective employer has refused to tell you why you failed at the last hurdle.

I'd never have resigned from a post without first having confirmation of a new post in writing and I would never take the advice of a professional CV writing service either. (Can you contact them and tell them what happened as a result of your taking their advice? If you paid them, ask for a full refund.) 

All that being said, I'm really not so smug, as I actually just walked out on two jobs in the past. They were absolutely dreadful and I couldn't have stayed there to save my life. (I walked to temporary agencies and they helped me to find alternative work.)

If there are any good points here - before it all went pear-shaped they considered you to be the best person for the job, they said you scored incredibly high on the skills matrix and they were impressed with you and highly delighted to be welcoming you to their company. If they thought you were an excellent prospect, surely other companies will do, too?

But before you apply, it seems that there's some work to be done where your credit reports are concerned as outlined by MattMattMattUK above, and also where your CV is concerned. 

Acas can help you with advice about constructing a CV too, or can point you in the right direction. 

I hope this is of some help. Just my own thoughts, opinions and experiences of course.

I wish you all the very best for the future. 

HampshireH

To be fair to the OP they signed a contract so they did have the offer in writing before resigning from their job.

However that in itself seems a bit odd that the Company would get the contract signed before doing the checks and I expect that contract had a clause in it allowing them to retract it upon unsatisfactory checks.

I would put a request in writing to the company involved and see if your current employer would be happy to keep you

julianrob77

Hi, thanks for the constructive advice.

I want to be really clear about how this unfolded.

It is obviously a massive risk to hand in notice at your current job unless everything is totally signed off for your new one. I expressed my concerns to the guy recruiting me about this because it meant handing in my notice before the checks were completed, he assured me it was not a big deal and the deal breaker would be any evidence of fraud (by ID, financial, etc). I told them anything that might come up from the checks (bad credit history) and the company director said to me in writing "I don't see that being a problem". That's why I felt confident enough to hand in my notice and prepare to start. 

I was in essence pressured into this action. 

The offer letter is clear that the.job is conditional on the checks. There is no clause in my actual contract I can see about it, but as it's in the offer letter, they are covered legally I would think.

What had caused me mental health harm here is not telling me why. I've had a horrific time of it since the pandemic, and just before it too. I am also an autistic adult, meaning I find big brother type stuff like this very hard to understand. It's so impersonal.

What I can say is that most people leave off jobs that are not relavant from their CVS, nothing illegal about that, your CV is a marketing document not a legal one. The mistake I made was.not adding this to my Experian timeline when I filled it out. It was totally not intentional, I've tried to explain that, but I am simply guessing that might be the reason. It could be anything!

My view is usually if a contract is signed then it would have to be something really serious and drastic for them to take back the offer. That's why I'm suffering mentally as they won't say. It's dreadful behaviour.

J

P.s. my notice period has now ended so I can't ask yo be retained at my current position. I doubt they would have agreed anyway though.

elsien

julianrob77 said:

Im hoping someone can help me here.

I applied for a job recently, and to my delight I was so impressive they offered me a senior web developer position!
Apparently, my 'skills matrix' score was incredably high.. so the interviewer said.

This was obviously excellent news. They informed me that they needed me to start 4 weeks from confirming, but that there was a background check to complete.

The guy interviewing me said this was primarily for ID purposes, and a basic DBS check. I did have an unspent diriving conviction, which I declared to the company director seperatley, as well as the fact that I have bad credit- which in fact, was down to an error made by my bank some years ago. 

he said to me in an email "i dont see this being a problem" and the interviewer told me I had been praised for my honesty on this matter.

the background check experian carried out was ID, residence history, work history, criminal history (basic DBS).

I contacted my former employers, they were happy to provide references, and these were basic ones (i.e. just job title, and length of time). 

The company came back to me friday last week saying the check had come back as 'unsatisfactory'. They have refused to tell me why I have failed this.

I signed a contract, provided to me on the same day that they issued the offer letter. I was led to belive this was a light touch check, and as I said, I made sure that they knew anything that could be a deal breaker, which led me into a false sense of security, handing in my notice at my other job (which was crap but well paid!).

I did realise that I had omitted a 2 week job from my CV, and i have since told them this was actually taken off my CV during a review with a professional CV writing service, which they are happy to confirm. I did not intent to mislead them deliberatley- if, that is the reason why they have said that I failed this check. But they are stonewalling. I was in fact dismissed from this role, needing to attend a pre booked medical appointment, and they refused to let me attend, forcing me to take a sick day, at which point they terminated me on the spot. thats pretty illegal, was a horrific experience and its understandable why I would not want to add it to my CV. but I didnt mean to mislead anyone on purpose.

However, for all I know, that has nothing to do with the reason why I have not passed the check!

I have submitted an official Subject Access Request, to at least try and get my hands on the information to find out why this has happened. Its absolutley rotten they are not telling me why, expeicially becuase I quit my job to join them, they were the ones setting the start date to me rather than waiting for the check to complete. I feel horribly misled, and they have left me unemployed with no answers as to the reason why.

Thanks.

This bit jumped out at me. You didn’t just miss out a 2 week job, you failed to tell them about a job that you were dismissed from. That’s completely different.

Most people with pre-booked medical appointments take leave, not a sick day. If your company refuses to allow the time off, which aside from specific circumstances they can do, and  then you then tell them you are too unwell to work then that’s probably not true. So stating your dismissal was illegal, depending on the reason for it, may or may not be the case. Sick days are for when you are too unwell to work, not to attend appointments, as a rule. 

I do think you need to consider how you might handle any similar situation in future. 
You say you were “forced” to take a sick day in that job; now you’re saying that you are “pressured” into handing in your notice too soon. You do need to take responsibility for these decisions yourself.

Singlemummy_2

You mentioned part of these checks was a dbs check? Have you had the dbs certificate through, could there be something on your criminal record that has come up? It will show on your certificate.

can you login to the Experian check portal and see if you can identify the issue 

julianrob77

 I was in fact dismissed from this role, needing to attend a pre booked medical appointment, and they refused to let me attend, forcing me to take a sick day, at which point they terminated me on the spot. thats pretty illegal, was a horrific experience and its understandable why I would not want to add it to my CV. but I didnt mean to mislead anyone on purpose.

This bit jumped out at me. You didn’t just miss out a 2 week job, you failed to tell them about a job that you were dismissed from. That’s completely different.

Most people with pre-booked medical appointments take leave, not a sick day. If your company refuses to allow the time off, which aside from specific circumstances they can do, and  then you then tell them you are too unwell to work then that’s probably not true. So stating your dismissal was illegal, depending on the reason for it, may or may not be the case. Sick days are for when you are too unwell to work, not to attend appointments, as a rule. 

I do think you need to consider how you might handle any similar situation in future. 
You say you were “forced” to take a sick day in that job; now you’re saying that you are “pressured” into handing in your notice too soon. You do need to take responsibility for these decisions yourself.

with all due respect, this is not helpful, and regardless of anything else, as I have explained I am only guessing that this could be the reason behind my application being withdrawn, as the company will not tell me if this past issue is the reason or not.

Even if lets say, and this is a bit of a stretch, this past job showed up on my experian report and the person reviewing it then decided to get in touch with them, and the director there then gave me a 'bad reference'- that is in fact outside of the consent which I have given in respect of my background check, I only consented to Experian doing it.

I am of course wondering if indeed thats what has happened. 
regardless though I did not break any laws not declaring this, its not completley different at all if I left or was dismissed- they made NO FORMAL CHARGES against me at all, not gross misconduct, nothing. thats why it was illegal!

I do happen to know as well that the background check experian do, does NOT show reason for leaving.

I told you I was autistic, this other company, the one I had the job for 2 weeks for knew this from the very start, asked me that in the interview (which is illegal for certain, and at that point I should never have taken up post). they had set rules around medical appointments, this was for support to work and I had every legal right to attend it, since it was booked BEFORE i started. I checked my position over this very carefully.

Obvilusly, of course I understand how it looks to someone else, it suddenly appearing. I was suffering bad mental health at the time, and regardless of anything else, people can be dismissed for all sorts of reasons. It does NOT mean I should be suddenly refused another job, without any clarification, or hearing my side of that, if indeed somehow they have decided to find out on their own about this without asking me.

You dont seem to be considerate at all. I am seeking advice over this situation and hopefully some support, not judgement over a situation which you dont know all the facts about. 

Of course it 'looks bad' and it was an accidental omission. I have since corrected my record voluntarility and asked them to reconsider, but the point is that I do not not know at all if this is anything to do with it, and am just guessing. 

P.S as for this comment:  You do need to take responsibility for these decisions yourself.

that is deeply hurtful and offensive. of course, im blaming myself for this situation, but the key thing here is not knowing what the problem is! Thats why i posted this. I am stabbing in the dark here about it. OK, perhaps indeed a past job which didnt work out (and that issue I mentioned over leave wasnt the only thing actually that was wrong with it) or some other factors. I just dont know. It was NOT an intnetional action on my part to mislead the new employer at all! 

let me try and put it another way, of course, i handled my medical appointment issue badly, but there are procedures for disciplining people other than just suddenly terminating their employment, and in point of fact, this was never mentioned in my dismissal email. you dont know all the facts.

I take full responsbility for my actions, thank you.
thats why I have come forward with this information to them voluntarility now, they didnt ask me if it was the job omission, so ive been honest and said I didnt mean to mislead or make this mistake.

and besides anything else, we all should have the right to move on from horrible experiences should we not? or should we always be beathen over the head for anything bad we have done forevermore? Thats a miserable human existence I want no part of thank you. I paid my dues, and so did they (out of court settlement)

julianrob77

Singlemummy_2 said:

You mentioned part of these checks was a dbs check? Have you had the dbs certificate through, could there be something on your criminal record that has come up? It will show on your certificate.

can you login to the Experian check portal and see if you can identify the issue 

I had my DBS back and I had a traffic offence on there, but I informed them about that before we did the experian application, and he said it was not a problem. thats also my point, a false sense of security...

Undervalued

MattMattMattUK said:

Have you looked at your report with Experian? CCJs, missed payments, high levels of debt etc. are all deemed high risk factors, could any of those apply? If the bank made an error then they should correct your credit report to reflect that.

The Experian background check is not the same thing a credit report although those aspect would also be a part of it.

I agree with another poster that the short term employment (which didn't end well) missed out from the OP's CV could very well be the real reason.