Negative Credit and Job Searching
It is common knowledge that can make it harder to get more credit. But did you know it can also effect your ability to find or keep a job? It is a fact that employers increasingly use credit reports when hiring, evaluating and promoting employees. It is a practice that is coming over from the States and many consumer rights agencies are very worried about it.
At the moment an employer does not have to get your permission to view your . What’s more, if the report leads to you failing to get a job, you may never know reason. It is not apparently obvious to many why their would be relevant to getting a job but employers maintain that a good credit rating shows commitment to obligations, good character and sound judgement.
While all of these things may be true, there are also many reasons outside of an individual’s control that may lead to bad credit. What’s more, it seems especially harsh to deny a job completely on the grounds that this is one of the people who clearly need it most.
If you fail to get a job, you should always try and find out the reason. If it transpires that the reason was because of information in your credit report, you should immediately get access to your credit report. You have a right to see your credit report, and the information in them must be and up to date. This duty to keep the information accurate and up to date lies on both the credit reporting company and the company that provided the information. By law, you have a right to view all information that is kept about you on a computer or electronic retrieval system. If the information is incorrect you can apply to have it corrected. By checking your credit report periodically, you can make sure that your report is up to date and that you are not denied a job simply because of a .
The practice of using credit reports to assess applicants’ suitability for jobs is a worrying trend for a number of reasons.
- First of all, credit reports are not always accurate.
- They also can be damaged be events outside the control of the applicant.
- There may be discrimination issues if for example it can be shown that women have poorer credit ratings than men, this criterion would be discriminatory.
