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A few years ago, biometrics seemed like something out of a science fiction movie, but in 2020 we think nothing of just looking at our phone to open it, or using fingerprints to pay for our kids’ school lunches. Biometrics refers to everything in our physical person which makes us unique. Fingerprints were recognised as being unique and identifying in the early 1900s, and since then the technology has evolved rapidly to include iris recognition, palm prints and voice recognition. Many companies go through a very rigorous process of checking the identity of people who apply for jobs, which usually includes seeing a wide range of documents and a lot of paperwork. Could this all be replaced by a quick scan of an applicant’s eyes or checking their palm prints?

Government Guidance and Biometrics

Currently, some of our ID contains biometric data already. The passport is the best example, as it holds both a physical photograph and digitised data of certain measurements and aspects of appearance. When you go through the biometric passport gates at the airport, a computer is looking at the information in your passport and comparing it to your appearance.

However, setting up this sort of system isn’t easy for businesses and can be expensive. Any system using biometrics requires several checks and balances. Government guidance requires companies to make sure the data hasn’t been tampered with, that false matches or negatives are kept to a minimum, and that the person is alive and not just a photograph.

Confidence in Identity

Most companies set up a scoring system to record whether they’re confident in an individual’s identity or not. This could be as simple as a yes/no tick box exercise or giving scores for the type of identity documents seen. As biometrics data is harder to fake, it scores higher in confidence than something like a utility bill or bank statement.

How Will This Affect Job Searches?

As biometrics become more commonplace, and the technology comes down in price, it seems natural to assume more organisations will adopt the technology. From an applicant’s point of view there are advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that it’s all much quicker; a quick retina scan or palm print will confirm who you are, without the need to dig out lots of identification and wait for someone to review it. The negatives are around data security, and the fact there’s not one integrated system. You may have set up thumb print recognition to access your phone, but that isn’t linked to your bank, the NHS or police computers. That sort of one large database is not planned, and there are serious concerns about privacy which would stop organisations from setting it up.

Should I Be Worried?

Biometrics doesn’t have to be scary. We’re already happy to use biometrics to access things like banking apps on smartphones, and the technology is moving on very quickly. It seems logical to think that in the next 10 or 20 years, linking job applications to something like a credit checking website to verify identity will be commonplace.

You’d think it would be easy to prove your identity. Most of us like to think that everyone we come into contact with is honest, and that’s often the case. But when it comes to applying for jobs or dealing with government bureaucracy, nothing is taken at face value. Employers need to check up on the people who are applying to work for their company. Don’t take it personally if you have applied for a job and are asked to take along something to prove who you say you are – it’s standard practice. However, there are some forms of identity which are more useful than others.

Right to Work

The most common type of check in recruitment is a Right to Work check. As employers are hit with very heavy fines if they are found to be employing illegal workers, any decent employer will ask for proof of your nationality. The gold standard proof of identity in this case is your passport. You can only get a British passport after extensive government checks, and the same applies to passports issued by other countries too. Passports have your photo, and other details such as your full name and date of birth which can be matched against other documents which you have. If people from other countries have the right to work in the UK, they will usually have a visa stamped in their passport, and their status can be checked with the Home Office. Having a passport will make life a lot easier when it comes to dealing with bureaucracy.

DBS Checks

One of the other reasons you may be asked about identity is if you’re applying for a job which needs a disclosure check. DBS checks, which used to be called Criminal Records Bureau or CRB checks. These are mostly jobs which involve positions of financial responsibility, or caring jobs. There is a wide range of documents which you can use to verify your identity for a DBS check, but you will need more than just a passport. In addition, you may be asked for a driving licence and some documents which verify your financial history such as utility bills or bank statements.

Bank Accounts and Finances

Opening a bank account also requires you to prove who you are. Banks are constrained by money-laundering legislation and have to make sure they verify the identities of their customers. Most banks will ask for some form of official photo ID such as driving licence or passport and will match your appearance against the photo provided. They’ll also want to see something which shows your address, like a utility bill or letter from an official body like the Council. Most financial services providers will also run a credit check on you, and this looks at things like whether you’re on the electoral role, and whether you’ve defaulted on credit in the past. The good news is that you can look at your own credit score by signing up for one of the apps or websites which lets you monitor your score.

There is a very wide range of situations in which you might be asked to prove who you are. Opening a bank account, applying for a job, applying for benefits – the list is endless. For young people who are still living at home with their parents or in student accommodation, proving their identity can be tricky, as their names aren’t on utility bills, and they’re unlikely to have credit card accounts either. This lack of official ID, especially something with a photo on it, can start to cause problems. So, if you’re in this situation, here’s our advice on the best way around the problem.

Provisional Driving Licence

If you don’t have a passport and are starting to struggle with providing official ID, the best starting point is to apply for your provisional driving licence. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re actually learning to drive – the provisional licence is official government ID which will make life a lot easier. You can apply for a UK provisional driving licence with your birth certificate or student card, current address and birth certificate. Applying for your provisional online costs £34 at current rates and the application process is very straightforward.

Passport

The other option is to apply for a passport. This might be a better option if you are planning to travel abroad in the next few years and have no intention of learning to drive. However, getting a passport involves a lot more form filling, expense, and potentially hassle. The online application cost for an adult passport is £75.50 at current rates, more than double the cost of getting your provisional driving licence. If you have had a passport as a child, this will be treated as a renewal and usually passports take around three weeks to be issued. If you’ve never held a passport before, then you will probably be called to an interview at one of the passport centres around the UK. There’s no charge for booking the interview, but there will be additional costs in terms of travelling expenses and potentially loss of earnings if you need to take time off work.

Building a Financial History

The easiest way of building your own financial history is moving out of home or a house share and getting utility bills with your name on them. This is often not an option however, and there are lots of other things you can do too. The first thing is to make sure you are on the electoral register, either at home or your student accommodation. Open a student bank account and think about getting a credit card even if you are not intending to use it. The next time you upgrade your phone, take the contract out in your name and make sure the bills are settled on time, every month. Think about downloading an app such as ClearScore, which will show your current credit rating and give tips about what you can do to increase your score and give a bigger financial footprint.

According to a recent survey by the University of Portsmouth, the cost of recruitment fraud in the UK has reached the staggering figure of £24 billion. This figure covers the cost of advertising positions, salaries for recruitment staff, and the losses which could be encountered by a business if they take someone on who isn’t who they say they are. Determined fraudsters will find a way to circumvent even the strictest pre-employment checking processes which a company can put into place. However, knowing the main tricks which fakers use can help you identify which risks are a factor in your company and take steps to minimise them.

Key Findings

Some of the findings highlighted in the University of Portsmouth report are shocking, such as the fraudster who conned his way into a job as a commercial pilot. Or the European bank which lost over 5 million euros in fraud after recruiting a former temp worker without going through the proper recruitment process. Although these serious cases show just how bad things can be if you don’t check up on applicants, the problem isn’t just limited to a few rogue fraudsters.

University of Portsmouth researchers found that a staggering 80% of CVs examined showed some type of discrepancy. One of the most common lies was around experience, with 21% of applicants claiming more responsibility or experience by inflating their job titles. 12% of CVs contained lies about exam or university grades. 18% of companies reported that in the previous year they had been given fake documents to support someone’s application. There is growing evidence of a thriving black market in academic and professional qualifications which may help applicants secure a job, especially in the financial and healthcare sectors.

Quantifying Losses

In the past, businesses have often been reluctant to disclose exactly what losses have been incurred by employing someone who isn’t what they think they are. The losses can be split into two main categories. Someone wo is desperate to secure a position and fabricates references or plays up their experience isn’t necessarily criminal. However, they are more likely to be incompetent and not up to the job you have employed them to do. Often, it can take a while for their lies to be uncovered, and by that point you may have lost key customers, or other decent members of staff too. Getting rid of them is usually the least expensive part of the process; recruiting again and rebuilding your company’s reputation might take a lot longer.

The other main group of applicants are the determined fraudsters who have their eye on emptying your bank accounts from the off. These people try to lie their way into positions in the company which give access to suppliers, accounts or administrative systems which help them in their fraud. Companies have also reported that failing to conduct proper pre-employment checks or staff has also led to incidents of violence against colleagues, theft, or even examples of industrial espionage.

A recent survey by the University of Portsmouth has revealed some surprising findings about the state of recruitment fraud in the UK. The widely reported headline from the report was that annually, recruitment fraud costs companies across the UK £24 billion. The study also highlights some of the most extreme cases, such as the oil executive who was imprisoned after faking his way into a six-figure salary by claiming he had three different university degrees. However, perhaps more interesting for most companies is the section about what companies typically do to try to mitigate the risks for their organisations.

Most Common Types of Pre-Employment Checking

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that out of the 49 employers they spoke to, 43 chased up references from people applying for jobs. A slightly lower number took steps to confirm the details which the applicant had given on their form, CV or during interview. This could mean calling up previous employers to verify job titles or asking universities for confirmation of degree results. Around half of employers also said they ran police background checks on applicants, but as many criminal records checks are restricted to a specific type of job, this isn’t always possible.

Less Common Checks

There is also a huge other range of checks which employers might decide to run on people applying for a job with them. Only around a third of companies look through specialist databases to confirm details which applicants have given them, and a similar number look at directorship databases, look through the newspaper databases to see if anything comes up, or checks the public records about county court judgements or bankruptcies. Although only around a third of companies admitted to conducting a trawl through the applicant’s social media accounts, this tactic is becoming more common as it’s free and quick. Obviously, the exact checks will depend on the type of role under consideration, but this study indicates that perhaps companies should be doing more to check up on people applying to work with them.

Current Employee Checks?

Most checking is done on people who are new to the company, and that’s understandable. But increasingly, companies are vetting their staff on an ongoing basis. In the University of Portsmouth study, most companies said that they didn’t do anything to check up on staff once they were in the organisation. So even when switching to a more senior position or applying for a position in a different location in the same business, references aren’t being checked, and information isn’t being verified.

One of the cases highlighted by the report shows up just how dangerous it can be to be lax checking up on people who are working in your company already. A major European bank made just that mistake when taking on an employee who had previously had a short-term contract with the business. The employee was later convicted of fraud, costing the bank over 5 million euros. This just proves how dangerous it can be to assume that just because someone’s worked with your organisation in the past, that they’re a good choice.

We’re all becoming increasingly aware of the risks which companies are facing in terms of recruitment fraud. In one recent study, 80% of CVs were found to have some sort of inaccuracy on them, from a slight grade increase on one exam result through to a wholesale fabrication of previous jobs. For most companies, the only way of checking up on people who have applied for jobs with their organisation is to ring up previous employers, check industry databases, look at social media accounts or chase up references. But could advances in artificial intelligence soon provide a better way of going about the process?

What Can AI Do?

Artificial Intelligence is already playing a valuable role in fraud detection in other industries. Most of us will have experienced getting a call from our credit card company or bank, asking if it really was us making a certain transaction. This is all down to artificial intelligence looking at patterns, working out what’s normal and what raises a red flag. The amount of data flowing through a financial services organisation is just too plentiful for someone to trawl through and try to spot when something isn’t right. Could the same principles be applied to recruitment fraud too?

Highlighting Key Risks

Data can help highlight the areas in a business which are at higher risk of fraud and losses. This can be done by looking at data from all over the world, comparing which departments in businesses suffer higher losses on average. Looking at data from companies with similar structures and in a similar industry could help highlight weak spots in your organisation and will help you identify which positions might require a higher level of checking than others.

Once you have recruited employees, AI can also be used in the same way as it works to identify unusual transactions on a credit card. Artificial intelligence can look at every transaction flowing through your business to help spot an anomaly, or perhaps help identify when staff are looking at customer files when they shouldn’t be. This type of software could help provide an early warning of something going wrong in your business, before you start to incur heavy financial losses.

Analysing Applicants

There is also some evidence that tech companies are going one step further, by using software to help analyse words and phrases used by applicants on cover letters or in application forms, or even by analysing facial expressions when candidates are filmed giving their responses to a set of standard questions. The idea is to compare traits exhibited by candidates against responses given by previous successful applicants in the same organisation. However, it’s not all plain sailing with AI. Many companies have already abandoned the technology in favour of more traditional methods as the AI software has in some cases discriminated against women, or people from ethnic minority groups. But as computers get smarter, and recruiters start to appreciate how useful they can be in identifying trends, the use of AI will be increasingly common in all recruitment decisions.

Uber, the app which has been changing the way the taxi market works across the world, has again had its licence to operate in London rejected. Transport for London has highlighted several serious concerns about the way in which Uber and its drivers work in London, especially concerning insurance for the cars themselves, and identity verification for the drivers.

Fake Identities

One of the most shocking revelations in the Transport for London licence refusal was that over 14,000 Uber journeys had taken place with a driver who had faked their identity to log into the Uber app. This is all down to the way in which the Uber software worked, which allowed an unverified driver, who hadn’t uploaded proof of driving licence, car insurance or a DBS check to upload their details as an additional driver on an approved account. This driver was then free to pick up customers.

Uber has responded to Transport for London’s findings, saying that the company is taking steps to close loopholes in its system and stop this happening again in the future. However, Transport for London has made it clear that they cannot be confident in the processes and procedures put in place by Uber in London.

Continued Operation

Although the news of Uber’s licence refusal was all over the news, the company and its 45,000 drivers are continuing to pick up passengers across the capital. There is a right to appeal against the decision, and while any appeal is being considered, Uber can continue to operate. There is also the side issue of Uber’s licensing in other parts of the UK; if unlicensed and unverified drivers can pick up passengers in London, does that mean they are doing the same in other towns and cities in the UK too?

What Should Be Happening?

Just as with all taxi companies, Uber has a legal obligation to check up thoroughly on the people who are applying to work with the company. There has also been ongoing legal wrangling over whether Uber drivers are self-employed or employed, but Uber still has the responsibility of checking up on people registering with their app before letting them loose on customers.

All taxi drivers, whether they drive for Uber, are self-employed or work for a longer established taxi company have to come up to a basic standard. Uber should be making checks on their right to work legally in the UK, that they have the correct driving licence and that the car they will be operating in is up to scratch too.

The keystone to all checking done by Uber – and all other employers – is to make sure that the person applying for the licence matches up with all the other identity documentation which is being provided. This isn’t always easy. The sheer volume of applications from people who want to be Uber drivers increases the possibility that someone will slip through the system. In order to regain their licence to operate in London, Uber will have to convince Transport for London that they have tightened up security in their processes and closed all previous loopholes.

The ongoing Brexit negotiations are causing high levels of uncertainty from employers about what exactly is going to happen once the UK leaves the EU. In fact, it’s still not very clear that we will be leaving the EU, and if we do leave, whether it will be with a deal or without a deal. It’s all very confusing. However, there has been some guidance from the government about the issue of right to work checks, which should go some way to reassuring employers.

No Changes Until 2021

The most recent information released by the UK government states that there will be no change in the way citizens of the EEA have to prove their identity until 1st January 2021. This will apply even if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. Although we talk mostly about the UK leaving the European Union, it’s the European Economic Area, or EEA which applies in this case. The EEA is made up of all the countries which are in the European Union, plus Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. These three countries sit outside the EU, but are part of the wider customs union.

New Responsibilities

The government is clear on what employer responsibilities will be in the event of Brexit and in any transition period which follows. Current identity verification laws will remain unchanged. That means that companies will still be fined if they are caught employing illegal workers, so managers and recruiters still have the job of asking for passports and checking that the person in front of them matches the official identification provided. That is the process whether the applicant is British, from a European country or from further afield.

The new clarification puts employers’ minds at rest about what happens to workers who lose their right to be in the UK at the end of their employment. Up to 1st January 2021, employers will not have to go back and check on the immigration status of any EEA national since the date of any Brexit, and they won’t have to check that the person intends to leave the UK if they no longer have the right to be here. The government also reiterates the need to keep high quality records about identity verification. Most employers take photocopies of passports, and these should be kept for 2 years after the employee concerned has left the job.

Temporary Leave to Remain

The government also intends to create a temporary status for EU and EEA residents who arrive in the UK between the Brexit date and 1st January 2021 to apply for temporary leave to stay in the UK, work and apply for whatever other paperwork they need to legitimise their stay. However, this arrangement is bound to form a key part of the Brexit negotiations should the government go back to Brussels and try to get a better or different deal. So although the government currently gives the above advice to employers about identity verification, there’s every chance that we may see further changes in the New Year.

Unsurprisingly, the British media generally concentrates on news stories about people who have come to the UK to work illegally, rather than experiences of other countries. However, this situation has recently been flipped on its head with reports that the Chinese government is considering a crackdown on the estimated 250,000 people working in China illegally as English teachers.

Strict Visa Requirements

China has very strict rules about what types of people can be employed in the country as English language teachers. Visa applicants must be native speakers of English, have a university degree and a qualification in teaching English as a foreign language. Teachers also need a health check, and a police criminal records check. All this paperwork takes time, and therefore it’s no surprise that some agencies are happy to bend the rules for applicants. There is a very high demand for English teachers in China, and experts estimate that as many as 60% of the teachers currently in China are not there legitimately.

Potential Crackdown

Anyone considering taking a job as a teacher in China should be aware that they are taking a risk. Although the Chinese middle classes are desperate for their children to learn English, the increasing problems caused by poor quality teaching or exploitative job advertisements are leading to the authorities considering a crackdown. Chinese legislation allows for fines of up to £2,200 for working illegally, a fortnight in prison and then deportation. In theory it’s the school employing the teachers which is responsible, but in practice, it’s the foreign teacher who pays the fine and ends up in prison. Is it worth failing foul of the law in order to get a couple of years working overseas? Given the wide availability of information online, could being deported come back to haunt you in years to come when a UK employer decides to Google your name?

UK Comparison?

In the UK we don’t import English teachers, and illegal working in the education sector is not an issue in this sector. However, there are several other sectors in which illegal workers are found more often than others. Restaurants, the hotel industries, beauty salons and other small service businesses often employ more illegal workers than larger multinational organisations with professional HR departments.

However, being a small business does not opt you out of your obligations to check up on the people who are applying for a job in your organisation. All employers have a legal duty to verify the nationality of the people working in their business. Most will do this by asking to see a copy of a passport, showing nationality and any immigration stamps and visas which might be relevant. Just as with the situation of the teachers working in the grey economy in China, there are stiff fines for illegal workers in the UK too, although the business pays rather than the individual. Legislation around checking the identity of those who you employ is always changing and will change even further depending on what happens regarding the Brexit process.

Details are still unravelling about exactly what happened to the 39 people who were found dead in a truck in Essex after entering the country illegally. Investigations are ongoing into the international people trafficking ring, which appears to have involved bringing container loads of Vietnamese nationals into the UK on fake Chinese documentation. The criminal case is likely to rumble on, with a trial date yet to be set.

It’s very easy to write this sort of tragic case off as nothing to do with you. However, if you run a business or are involved with interviewing and recruitment, it may have a lot to do with you. This headline-grabbing case has brought home how desperate people are to get into the UK and secure a job here.

People Trafficking

Many of the people who are brought into the UK in the back of lorries have paid huge sums of money for the privilege. In order to pay back the gangs who arrange the illegal entry, trafficked people are often put to work in nail bars, car washes or other businesses until they’ve paid their debt. However, people who make their own way into the UK, or just overstay a legitimate entry visa, are not allowed to work legally either.

Checking Identity

The responsibility for checking that someone is legally allowed to work in the UK lies with the employer, not the Home Office. Employers can be hit with huge fines of up to £20,000 for each illegal worker they employ. Therefore, it’s standard practice to ask people to bring their passports to interview. The issue of employers checking up on their workers’ nationalities and immigration status is controversial. Some employers resent being asked to do what they perceive as UK Border Agency’s job, but currently there are no plans to overhaul the system.

Two Related Issues

If you’re responsible for making sure that people applying to your company are legal workers, where do you start? Well, there are two key issues to consider. Firstly, there is a group of people who just don’t have any documents at all. They’ve never had a passport or refuse to show any proof at all. This is usually a fairly easy scenario to deal with.

A trickier situation concerns people like the people who died in the container lorry in November. They were all carrying documents, but they were fakes. How do you spot when a job applicant is claiming to be something they’re not? This is altogether more complex. Care should be taken over the identity verification process. It’s not just enough to confirm that the person has a passport which entitles them to live and work in the UK. Another step for identity verification has to be verifying that the documents are genuine, and that they belong to the person in front of you.

The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert. Immigration authorities will offer help and advice for those struggling with verifying documents. There’s also lots of information online about how to spot the common problems with counterfeit documents.