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Since 2014 in England, landlords and lettings agents have had the legal responsibility to carry out detailed checks on tenants before a tenancy agreement starts. These identity checks are aimed at stopping individuals without lawful immigration status from being able to rent property from a private landlord and is known as Right to Rent checks. If a landlord or letting agency business doesn’t comply with the laws and is later found to be renting property without the right to be in the UK legally, they ae liable for fines.

Increased Non-Compliance Fines

The government has recently announced that fines for landlords found to be renting to people who are in the UK illegally are to increase dramatically in 2024. Before the changes come into effect, the fines for renting to illegal immigrants were £80 for someone living as a lodger in your property, and £1000 for a tenant in a rented flat or house. Under new legislation these will rise to £5000 for a lodger and £10,000 for an occupying tenant. For repeat offenders are even higher, with sums of up to £30,000 for each illegal tenant found in a property.

More Stringent Checks

With such a dramatic increase in fines, it’s perhaps no surprise that landlords and letting agents are starting to tighten up their processes when it comes to checking up on the people who want to work for them. The methods which landlords can use to check you out are not changing, it’s just that they are applying the checks more rigorously, irrespective of whether you have lived in the UK your whole life or have rented property from them before. These increased checks apply to absolutely everyone, so if you experience stricter checks than you are used to, don’t take it personally.

The three main methods which landlords can use to check out their prospective tenants are:

• Manual Right to Rent Checks – this is the traditional way of checking up on tenants or prospective workers. Tenants will be asked to attend the office in person to show their passports or other identity documents to prove who they are and that they have the legal right to live in the UK.
• Digital Right to Rent Checks – these can only be done for UK or Irish citizens and involve verifying someone’s identity using the government online portals. The advantage of these checks is that they are quicker than manual checks, and don’t involve the tenant having to come into the office.
• Home Office online Right to Rent check these are only suitable for non-British and non-Irish citizens who have a government eVisa as proof of their immigration status.

Whatever category you fall into, be prepared for a higher level of checking if you are thinking of renting property in 2024. Checks are nothing to be scared of, but you will be asked to show your passport, or other identity documents to help the landlords avoid some hefty fines. As the government continues to try to make life difficult for people in the UK illegally, expect further changes in the laws in the future.

CV fraud is a growing concern among recruiters, and a recent survey shows they have good reason to be concerned. One in five people, or twenty percent, either admit to lying themselves on their CV, or know someone who has lied about their qualifications on their CV in the past year. More shocking for employers, 40% of employees who suspect a colleague of CV fraud choose not to report it to HR, even when they have the option to do so anonymously. It also appears that lying on your CV is becoming more prevalent within younger age groups, with 38% of 16-24s admitting to either lying on their CV or knowing someone who has, compared with 30% in the 25-30 group. If you are thinking of applying for a job, or hiring a new employee for your business, should you be prepared for CV fact checking along with identity checking and chasing up references?

Why Commit CV Fraud?

In today’s competitive job market, it’s increasingly common for recruiters to demand degree-level qualifications, irrespective of the position. This can be seen by people who didn’t go to university as putting them at a disadvantage. The internet has made it very easy to fake qualifications and buy fraudulent certificates, which might at first glance appear entirely genuine. Employers risk taking on someone who is just not qualified for the role, and other genuine applicants face missing out.

CV Fraud and the Law

Lying on a CV is legally a grey area but can result in severe consequences if uncovered. There is a crime called “fraud by false misinterpretation,” which, in some cases, can carry a maximum jail sentence of 10 years. Writing a fake CV or stating qualifications which you don’t have isn’t a crime in itself, but getting a job on the back of your faked degree or A-levels might be.

Employers have the right to sack employees found to have lied on their CVs under gross misconduct rules. In certain sectors, such as healthcare and financial services, there may also be further action taken by the police or other professional bodies.

Identifying CV Fraud

Spotting CV fraud can be difficult, which is why many employers have started to use third-party screening companies to do it for them. CV checking involves spotting inconsistent or vague information, lack of detail, exaggerated achievements, employment history gaps, unverifiable claims, discrepancies between the CV and information given on the application form and other discrepancies. Calling or emailing universities or former stated employers often quickly uncovers the deception.

Preventing CV Fraud

As CV fraud is so common, job seekers should be prepared for a high level of scrutiny over their CV and application form. The most important piece of advice is the most straightforward – don’t be tempted to tell fibs or exaggerate on your CV.

Employers have started checking educational and professional qualifications as a matter of course for many employees and will not take any information at face value. For many employees, this can mean a longer than usual wait between getting a job offer and actually starting work.

As we start to move out of the winter months and start to look forward to the warmer weather and lighter nights, businesses preparing for heightened activity are in the midst of recruiting seasonal staff. Whether these hires are temporary or permanent, it remains the law that all employees in the UK to undergo Right to Work checks. These are government basic identity checks, which confirm that someone is both in the UK legally, and has the right to work in the UK under the terms of their visa.

Hiring Process for Seasonal Workers

Even if you are only going to be working for a few weeks or couple of months, employers are still required to do the same level of checking on their temporary workers as they do on full time staff. This process can be tricky for recruiters when they are trying to hire a large number of staff across a number of locations. In many cases, there are more positions available than there are people looking for work, and the temptation is for employers to cut corners in order to get people into position as quickly as possible.

The Right to Work checking process for summer staff should be the same as for permanent workers. Employers should be asking staff to either bring passports into the office to show their nationality and eligibility to work in the UK, or signing up for a digital platform which will allow the same checks to be done online. Employers will also need to keep copies of documents which have been supplied or confirmation on online checks, as inspectors will want to see these on any compliance visit. As an employee, these checks are not something you can wriggle out of, so the best advice is to comply with any requests as soon as possible as this will get you earning money quickly too.

Overseas Temporary Workers

The process is more complex when it comes to workers who are nationals of another country. There are many different types of visa and immigration status for people who were born outside the UK. Some visas allow free access to any type of work in the UK, others ban all sorts of working. Students are a difficult case as they are allowed to work a maximum number of hours in term times, and longer in vacations. If you are an overseas student planning to stay in the UK for work over the summer, your employer might ask for confirmation of your university and course of study to check your term dates. Again, this is only needed to keep the employer in the clear legally speaking.

Right to Work checks for other temporary overseas workers can usually be carried out online. Workers who are in the UK on an appropriate visa can apply for a share code from the Home Office and give this to their employer. The employer can then use this share code to log into the government website and check the individual’s status.

A County Court Judgment (CCJ) is a legal order in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that may be registered against you if you fail to repay a debt. In Scotland, a similar process is called enforcing a debt by diligence. A CCJ will also appear on your credit report and will greatly affect your ability to get other forms of credit such as a loan or mortgage. Lenders will see that you have been taken to court before over not paying debt and will be concerned you might default again. Similarly, employers who do credit checking as part of their standard pre-employment checks may be concerned about your financial history if you are applying for a job which has a high level of responsibility or involves access to money.

CCJ Standard Process

There is a standard legal process which any claimant must follow in order to get a CCJ registered against you. The CCJ is the end of the process as far as the company is concerned, and before a debt gets to that stage, they will have sent out numerous reminders and requests for payment. The best advice is always never to ignore any letters about money you owe. The problem is not going to go away, and if you can deal with it in the early stages you’ll pay less, as court fees are added to the debt.

Receiving a CCJ Claim Form

If your debt has got to the court action stage, then it’s very important to respond promptly and correctly. Typically, you have 14 days to respond to a CCJ claim form. Complete the information required on the form including an Income and Expenditure form, which outlines your financial situation and helps determine a suitable repayment plan. This will give the court the option of offering a payment plan rather than requiring the whole amount at once. The court will then look at the information on the form and the application from the person owed the money, and decide whether to order payment in instalments, or for the whole amount to be paid.

If you ignore a CCJ or fail to pay the instalments then the creditor can go send in debt collectors, bailiffs, or even apply to have the money to pay the debt taken out of your wages.

CCJs and Credit Record

All CCJs are recorded by the court in the Register of Judgments, Orders, and Fines and on your credit file. If the CCJ is paid in full within 30 days, you can apply to have it removed from your credit file. Otherwise, it remains there for six years and can make it very difficult to get any new credit such as a mortgage, loans or even sign up for a new mobile phone contract. If you pay off your CCJ after the 30-day period, you can still apply to have it marked as “satisfied” on your credit report. This may still affect your ability to get credit, but not as dramatically.

A recent shocking medical case in the UK saw Zholia Alemi, a bogus psychiatrist, sentenced to seven years in prison in Manchester Crown Court for committing 20 fraud offences over a period two decades. Alemi had forged a degree certificate, enabling her to practice as a psychiatrist and receive approximately £1 million in salary payments from the NHS. All incidents of employment fraud can be shocking, but the idea that the NHS allowed someone to treat patients without basic identity checking or anyone verifying her claimed qualifications is particularly alarming for patients.

Forged University Documents

Zholia Alemi was born in Iran and forged her degree certificate in 1995. She claimed to have qualified as a psychiatrist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She then used the forged documents to register with the General Medical Council, the professional body for doctors and psychiatrists and managed to secure many jobs in both private practice and NHS hospitals across the UK. Alemi had actually been accepted by medical school in Auckland and had started her training, but never finished and did not graduate.

The GMC did not spot the forgery of the original degree certificate presented in the mid-1990s, and once working in the NHS, the fake psychiatrist found it easy to move from one position to another without ever having to supply her certificates again. It is estimated that over the time in which she was employed by the NHS she earned around £1.3 million, and made decisions which could seriously affect patients, such as whether or not someone should be detained in a mental health facility under a section.

The lies about qualifications were only uncovered by a journalist, who was investigating a case in 2018 concerning the fake psychiatrist attempting to forge the will and power of attorney documents for an elderly patient.

NHS Improvements in Vetting

Both the NHS and the General Medical Council came under criticism from the judge in this case, and immediately began background checks on around 3000 foreign-qualified doctors working in the UK. They also stressed that since the 1990s, the processes and procedures for checking the identities, qualifications, and experience of anyone applying for a job in healthcare at whatever level had become much easier. The internet has made it quicker to check the claimed qualifications of doctors and nurses, obtained both here in the UK and overseas. The GMC reassured members of the public that this situation could not arise again.

Background Checks for NHS Work

Anyone employing for a position in the NHS will encounter a much higher level of checking in 2024 than this fake psychiatrist did 30 years ago. Right to Work checks are standard practice, and any overseas doctors or nurses who are being recruited in their home countries by NHS trusts will need to have the correct visa in place before taking up their position. As well as detailed verification of qualifications, recruiters should also be taking up references and investigating any lengthy gaps in someone’s employment history.

Pre-employment screening and identity verification is becoming increasingly more common in a wide range of different industry sectors. Every employer differs in what they want to check, but most will look at identity documents such as passports to verify right to work, check references and perhaps contact universities or colleges about academic results. One of the industries which commonly carries out extensive pre-employment screening is banking and financial services, especially in contract roles. If you are applying for a job in this sector, knowing what employers are typically asking for and looking into will help reduce processing delays and get you into that new dream job even more quickly.

Preparing for Pre-Employment Screening

An increasing number of banking and financial services organisations carry out detailed pre-employment screening for new hires, whether on a permanent or contract basis. Most firms will want all of the screening checks done before your start date. This can in some cases lead to substantial delays, especially when you have to gather lots of paperwork together to show the employer or screening company. Some of the documentation may take time to obtain, so it’s a good idea to know what is in store so that you can get through the process as quickly as you can.

Key Documentation Required

Each employer will differ in what documents they will ask you to provide. However, there are some key items which are asked for by nearly every employer, and not just those in the finance sector. These are:

• Proof of Right to Work: Employers are legally required to make sure you have the right to live and work in the UK. They will ask you to provide a passport or national identity document both to verify that you are who you say you are, and to check your nationality. People with non-UK passports will need the right Visa stamp in their passports to allow them to work in the UK.
• Proof of Address: Employers might ask for an original bank statement or utility bill to prove where you live. This information may be cross-referenced with the Electoral Register, so it’s important to register to vote if eligible. Many of us have gone digital with our bank statements, so if you need to provide a paper copy, allow time for it to get to you in the post.
• Credit Checks: These checks are looking for any serious financial red flags such as county court judgments (CCJs) registered against you, or whether you’ve experienced bankruptcy or entered into an individual voluntary arrangement in the last six years. You can check your own credit report to make sure that the information held about you is accurate.

Other Checks

In addition to the basic checks, companies may also look into verifying academic or professional qualifications so be clear about what qualification you were awarded, and when. Give employers as many ways as you can to contact your referees – email is best. Finally, don’t worry about the process as no one thing in screening will go against you; it’s about building a full picture.

Background checks are an increasingly common step in the recruitment process, for a whole host of different industries. Organisations want to protect themselves against hiring an employee which could damage the company, and will do checks such as identity verification to make sure you are who you say you are, taking up references or making sure you have claimed qualifications. The depth of background checks can vary significantly, but employment-related background checks here in the UK typically delve into someone’s history over the past five years.

Who Does the Background Screening?

Usually, pre-employment checks or background screening are done by the HR department of the prospective employer. Some companies choose not to do the screening themselves and outsource the work to an external screening provider. This often makes the process quicker and more efficient. Background screening is all about making sure that employers have all the information possible before making a job offer to a candidate.

Types of Employment Checks

By law, employers in the UK are obliged to make sure that they are employing people who are in the UK legally and have the right to work here. This basic level of checking applies to everyone and is known as “Right to Work Checks”. The most common way of doing the Right to Work Check is to ask employees to bring their passport for verification of nationality and visa restrictions, if any. Apart from Right to Work, other employment checks will vary between employers, and industry sectors. Some financial services companies will require credit report checking, other roles in education or social care will ask for a DBS check on your criminal record. Companies may also look at your social media accounts, or phone up previous employers to take references. Employers should be open and transparent with their workers about what they are checking, and why.

Extent of Checks

The type of employment will determine how far into your past the employer will want to check. For most roles, you can expect screening companies to be interested in the past five years. The exception to this is when you require an enhanced DBS check, perhaps for a role in healthcare or working with children. An enhanced DBS check can look at your entire criminal record, not just the previous five years.
Employers use all of the information revealed in background checks, along with your application and interview performance to decide whether to offer you a position or not.

Length of Time for Background Checking

There is no standard time for background checking to be completed. A very basic level of background check may take as little as 48 hours, up to as long as four weeks for detailed background checking. Employers should get your consent for background checking and explain what factors they will be looking at. You do of course have the right to refuse to agree to background checking, but the consequence of this is probably that you won’t be offered the job.