People who work for MI5 etc...how do they get mortgages etc where the employer details are asked for

[cakeorwine]

Inspired by another thread.

I assume people who work where they can't divulge who they work for have cover stories. But do the cover stories have "proper" employers with Pay slips, NI numbers etc - so if you had to apply for a mortgage, credit, renting etc, the person enquiring could see a pay slip and say, ok, I'll give you credit.

Are there "switchboards" so someone answering the phone call knows how to answer to say the company name?

Even James Bond needs a place to live and a credit history.

BiL works for GCHQ.
He doesn't talk about his job, but his degree is in electrical engineering.
He lives in a very ordinary house with a mortgage.
Every few years he'll have some kind of security scavenger hunt type Qs that he'll only be able to answer if he is the person he says he is. Last time was something like:

• if you are the Mr X you say you are, who is your brother married to? X - Ibiza

• so you can get into touch with Ibiza?

X - Yes

• then you have an hour to let us know where her brother was born.

What if his sister in law doesn't answer the phone?

I listened to something on the radio once about people who work for GCHQ. The staff have an office number they can give out to eg their DC’s school so they can ring if there’s a problem. They also had an office bake-off competition! So there is lots of normal stuff in place, probably so they get the best people from all walks of life there. Not sure about the pay slips etc. I imagine that part of their induction is how to deal with the question of what do you do for a living.

Exactly. What if she’s on holiday, in the cinema, phone is out of power.

All the security agencies are part of government so their mortgage applications will go to the HR or payroll team for that department eg Foreign Office

Payslips will show values etc. they don’t say “spy” they'll just look like a civil servant

its not usually this dramatic/ covers for these eventualities haha, but it’s along the lines or what the pp explained

Even being a spook nowadays isn’t the sort of jet-setting glamorous James Bond-esque career involving hiding in the shadows many people seem to think it is. In a digital age, for many it’s a lot of code-breaking, cyber hacking, intercepting intelligence, disrupting communications etc. Lenders will just see standard Civil Service payslips with a department code, and if they need to phone to confirm employment they’ll speak to HR who’ll confirm said person is employed by GCHQ / Home Office / Foreign Office or whatever.

What do you do for a living? “Civil servant”

You sometimes see people on Pointless and the like saying Civil Service and refusing to say anymore. I’d be like that even if I was in a boring role just to sound more mysterious.

I used to work with someone whose DH was a secret squirrel at GCHQ. Not that I should have even known that much, never mind all the other stuff she told me. I must have a trustworthy face or something. (maybe there's a career there for me!])

I do wonder though, what about life insurance? Does it get supplied through the job as standard? Not just if you die in the course of the job, that must be covered - but normal person life insurance, you could hardly call up Norwich Union and tell them what you really do, but anything else would be fraud??

All civil servants are told to say we are 'civil servants', whilst I'd love it if someone on a game show was a spy, they probably have mundane job like me 😅

Someone I know officially works for the Ministry of Agriculture……

a school friend’s father growing up genuinely was a government minister for Fisheries (not UK) and used to get seriously pissed off that everybody assumed he was a spy and he never got to wax lyrical about herring at social occasions.

Employer and job title.

Even car insurance - some job titles seem to be "riskier" for car insurance than others.

And would love to know about the HR and Health and Safety training!

Some are housed as a benefit and some have a generic job title.

So confused. Who is asking these questions?

My best friend worked at GCHQ. In 30 years she has never said a word about her job. She didn't even have a mobile phone till after she retired. But otherwise it was pretty normal civil service conditions. She loved a normal life and us a very normal person. Just a very discrete one!

’Civil servant’ appears as standard in dropdown lists for insurance etc.

Presumably it makes no odds what your job title is, its not in your payslip is it?

It just says "Bob Jones, earned £1000, paid £200 in tax, £50 to pension - take home £750"
And it might say "UK Foreign office" or whatever

Years ago I knew someone ex special forces who had a role paying ransoms to pirates in places like Yemen when they were actively boarding merchant ships and taking hostages. I'm not sure who his employer was but his wife worked for the Foreign Office and was posted to where he needed to be for his operations.

It does when applying for car insurance.

Teachers are quite a good risk apparently.
Recruitment consultants are a high risk

@GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut

If they are treated like the armed forces, they will get life assurance as part of their job plus there are specialist brokers for insurance for military eg car insurance which otherwise is horrific, plus my dd can pause her car insurance on deployment paying only a nominal fee each month if her car is sorned.

Diplomatic services most likely. There are huge numbers of people in the diplomatic corps, from embassies to international organisations like the United Nations, OECD, OPEC etc. They also come with diplomatic immunity so there is limited information that the state is allowed to have on them.

True story, we know someone who had a "boring" diplomatic job (see above) and married to a colleague who turned out to be a spy. He was hiding in plain sight for decades and not even his wife knew what he was actually up to.

They dont get mortgages, they get bonds. James bonds.

Actually a lot of standard admin roles require full deep vetting. For example working in the post room...

My DD works in a government role with the MoD. She and family and friends were vetted for 12months prior this which even included video calls. I know where she is based, and her job title but not the details of her job, although I could extrapolate based on her undergrad and MS Degree. She was advised during induction to be vague about her role when asked by new people but it's fine for her to say who her employer is, just not to elaborate further.