Reed want to see my husband's bank statements 😩

[Weepingwillowtree]

Desperate to get back into the workplace after 10 years out being a SAHM. Plucked up the courage to go for a Reed interview for a teaching assistant job (no qualifications required even though I have a BSc). Was told I had too much of a gap in my CV and they would need to see my husbands bank statements to “prove that I had been supported by him during this time”. I feel this is a total invasion of our privacy, what has my husbands finances got to do with whether or not I am capability of being a teaching assistant?? Am I being completely unreasonable refusing to provide this? They said they can’t give me a job unless I show his bank statements 😩

[AmyDavisReed]

Hi @Weepingwillowtree,

I am the Content Marketing Manager at Reed and have just come across your post. I am slightly concerned about what you have posted on here, as this is NOT Reed's normal process. Please do NOT give anyone your husband's bank statements until we can get to the bottom of this for you. Please contact me directly [email protected] and I will investigate this further. Best wishes, Amy

[6Helen7]

I applied for a temporary civil service role recently and as I'm normally self employed I had to provide 10 years of bank statements! They were my own though, not anyone else's.

[ProfessorSlocombe]

@AmyDavisReed

Hi *@Weepingwillowtree*,

I am the Content Marketing Manager at Reed and have just come across your post. I am slightly concerned about what you have posted on here, as this is NOT Reed's normal process. Please do NOT give anyone your husband's bank statements until we can get to the bottom of this for you. Please contact me directly [email protected] and I will investigate this further. Best wishes, Amy

I wonder where all the posters who insisted this was perfectly normal practice will scuttle to now ?

[yogi1]

My husband is a teacher and gone through lots of agencies with gaps in employment history when he did other jobs and he’s never been asked. None of their business asking for husbands bank statements. All they need to know is your CV and work history. Tell them due to data protection and confidentiality you can’t tell them about his earnings. Or see if the jobs been advertised with other agencies/ local council. Or if you know which school it is just ring them and apply that way as long as you haven’t signed a contract with Reed there’s nothing stopping you applying to the school, they will interview and do CV. Plus the school have to pay Reed thousands in contracts to advertise their jobs so if you apply through the school they won’t have to pay Reed, which schools love as their budgets are already stretched. This can be done my husbands probably been through every agency there is over the last 20 years

[Mmn654123]

@AmyDavisReed

Hi *@Weepingwillowtree*,

I am the Content Marketing Manager at Reed and have just come across your post. I am slightly concerned about what you have posted on here, as this is NOT Reed's normal process. Please do NOT give anyone your husband's bank statements until we can get to the bottom of this for you. Please contact me directly [email protected] and I will investigate this further. Best wishes, Amy

Excellent glad you’ve spotted this Amy and can get it resolved.

[BlueVelvetStars]

well done AmyDavisReed

[MenopausalMargot]

@6Helen7

I applied for a temporary civil service role recently and as I'm normally self employed I had to provide 10 years of bank statements! They were my own though, not anyone else's.

That really doesn't sound right. Was that through the Government Recruitment Service? GRS have access to HMRC employment and contributions data which should make that kind of thing unnecessary. As a self employed person HMRC should have been able to provide information to your prospective employer to confirm your work history.

[Bythemillpond]

6Helen7

Given you only have to keep records for 6 years I can’t see how you could provide 10 years of bank statements unless you are a hoarder.

[Bluntness100]

@AmyDavisReed

Hi *@Weepingwillowtree*,

I am the Content Marketing Manager at Reed and have just come across your post. I am slightly concerned about what you have posted on here, as this is NOT Reed's normal process. Please do NOT give anyone your husband's bank statements until we can get to the bottom of this for you. Please contact me directly [email protected] and I will investigate this further. Best wishes, Amy

Be interested to see the outcome of this.

This is a ludicrously unacceptable request.

[LouiseBelchersBunnyEars]

I wonder where all the posters who insisted this was perfectly normal practice will scuttle to now?

I know, honestly scary how many people will not only happily give out (other peoples!!) personal info, but also sit and defend it, and try and make out the people questioning it just are too dumb to understand why it’s needed...

[BelleBlueBell]

@AmyDavisReed

Hi *@Weepingwillowtree*,

I am the Content Marketing Manager at Reed and have just come across your post. I am slightly concerned about what you have posted on here, as this is NOT Reed's normal process. Please do NOT give anyone your husband's bank statements until we can get to the bottom of this for you. Please contact me directly [email protected] and I will investigate this further. Best wishes, Amy

Well done for coming on Amy, if Content Marketing Manager doesn't include any training responsibilities you're going to need to rope in some of your other managers.

You've lost a lot of potential business on the basis of this thread I think, rogue branch staff can do a lot of reputational damage

[Mmn654123]

@AmyDavisReed

Hi *@Weepingwillowtree*,

I am the Content Marketing Manager at Reed and have just come across your post. I am slightly concerned about what you have posted on here, as this is NOT Reed's normal process. Please do NOT give anyone your husband's bank statements until we can get to the bottom of this for you. Please contact me directly [email protected] and I will investigate this further. Best wishes, Amy

Look here @OhWhyNot

Turns out it isn’t needed at all!

[NiceGerbil]

Only read first and last pages.

This is nuts.

And what will your DH bank statements tell them? They're going to sit down and read through all of them? That won't tell them if you were actually working for any of it. I mean. What?

If you had been a single parent and living at your parents, would they want to see your parents bank statements?

What if you had split up from your OH and that's why you want to get back to work, where are you supposed to get this evidence from?

And what business is it of theirs how much he earns. Do they have an income threshold over which they'll believe you?

Women taking time out of work for children isn't exactly uncommon.

If a man took a 1 year sabattical and went traveling, what evidence would they ask for? His holiday pics? A restaurant receipt from each country? And how would they know he didn't work out there?

It's totally bananas. And totally out of order.

Also in the past I've found agencies like this to be useless. They are ok maybe when it's a person who is doing X job now, who wants to do X job somewhere else. Easy. They're not really interested in anything more involved.

In the past there have been things about these companies posting made up jobs to get people onto their books.

Applying directly is much better IMO.

Tell them to get stuffed OP.

[Nicknacky]

@OhWhyNot Any comment?

[MercyBooth]

I was on New Deal in 2000 A bout of workfare then they were about to send me on a second bout of workfare when i found a night job in a sex chatline office. When i went to sign off the cheeky fuckers at Reed had the nerve to tell me they could find me better when the previous time they were going to send me to a soup factory for three months to work for my JSA. Took them THREE HOURS to get the paperwork together so i could sign off. (they clearly hadnt been too careful with it as they obviously assumed i was unemployable. THEN after i started at the office (working nights) apparently someone from Reed rocked up at the office during the DAY to ask questions. My then boss sent them away with a flea in their ear. i was fuming They could have lost me the job Which was probably their modus operandi because back then they got paid when ppl were on their books. They were obviously too bone idle to actually come during my shift.

I didnt put on the signing off form what the job was.

But i fucking well would do now if i was ever in that situation again

[MercyBooth]

Reed and Pelcombe were running Labours New Deal where i am back in the late 90s early 2000s

[Twinkled]

No do not show them your DH/P bank statements .Have they asked in writing? If not tell them too. I would then put in a complaint to head office . The questions they asked you too . Why not apply to schools directly for a job? Even if they are not advertising get a clear non waffley cv together. Include a brief resume if you 8 sentences and bullet point your skills so it’s easy to read no more than 2 A4 sheets. being a mum gives you lots more relevant experience too. Then once you sent cv’s off follow up with phone calls two weeks later approx . Ask to pop in for a chat for them to see your suitability for the role abd say you’d love a look around the school etc . Good luck, you can do it x

[ProfessorSlocombe]

[quote Nicknacky]@OhWhyNot Any comment?[/quote]
I would imagine they are very busy on a crash training course somewhere.

[Epwell]

This whole page is nuts. People being asked for, and supplying (!) their children's birth certificates!! 10 years' of bank statements! And thinking all this is perfectly normal! There is no legal obligation to record criminal offences, still less to actively investigate and report them. The world has gone mad.

[SchrodingersImmigrant]

@Bythemillpond

6Helen7

Given you only have to keep records for 6 years I can’t see how you could provide 10 years of bank statements unless you are a hoarder.

Or an immigrant...
I have 13 years of paperwork... Including some psyslips from like 2008🙈

[YouLando]

I'm glad this has been resolved, because the request from Reed was so utterly batshit wrong.
When I had a temporary Civil Service job through Brook Street I was asked to supply bank statements to Brook Street to 'prove' I'd been a SAHM for the period I said I had been out of the job market. I did think it was weird, but embarrassingly I just complied...wish I'd challenged it.