Why would I be asked on an application form if I used to get free meals at school?

[user1471867483]

Well, the answer is yes, but would that go against me or something?

An application for what? I see a lot of questions on various applications as extremely personal and completely irrelevant, so I’ll generally lie.

It's collected for DEI purposes - many organisations now go beyond gender, ethnicity and disability to track whether they are offering equal opportunities to people from a range of class and income backgrounds. FSM is a marker of whether your family was low income.

The information will be held completely separately from your actual application and the hiring manager won't see it. It is analyzed in aggregate to see whether the organisation is discriminating/failing to offer equal opportunities.

Just for eg I recently applied for a student bus discount for my daughters, they wanted to know if I was straight, bisexual or lesbian??

Just leave it blank or choose "prefer not to say". Hiring managers don't see the detail anyway and you're only wasting your own time by making stuff up. Answering is optional.

I am pretty sure it's something to do with diversity stats but hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along and give a more informed answer.

Some top firm in London.

Could you put N/A?
As in, you don't feel this is applicable to the current situation.
They will prob read it as meaning "no"
And you're telling the truth

My gosh. That is shocking.

It would
More likely increase your chances - improve their diversity

It's about making sure that you recognise people's backgrounds are very different - someone with a wry impressive CV that relies on parental wealth shouldn't automatically be given an interview ahead of someone who has done really well but doesn't have grade 8 cello and DoE awards

It will be about social mobility.
They will be tracking who applies and who is offered the job. If they have traditionally only recruited people from a particular background they might be looking to change that.

And it won't go against you.......

.

Its so if they employ you they can tick a box on their equality form

It would
More likely increase your chances - improve their diversity

It will neither improve nor worsen your chances. Positive discrimination is illegal. The hiring manager will never see the answer - they'll only see your application materials.

Someone in the organisation's DEI team will analyse the anonymised data to determine whether, as a whole, the organisation attracts applicants from a wide range of backgrounds and offers them a fair assessment process. That is all.

"But these questions invade my privacy." You're 100% within your rights to feel that, in which case you can always, always skip the questions or choose "Prefer not to say". This will also not be known by the hiring manager and will not affect your chances.

It will go in your favour if you admit to it as recruiting you will help it look like they don't just go for public school / privileged types.

As a former FSM kid I'm glad they're doing it.

It takes the same amount of time to tick the ‘prefer not to say’ option than any of the others. I generally lie out if irritation that I’m being asked it at all. I don’t get what type of genitals I prefer having sex with has to do with my daughters bus pass application

Answering wasn't optional, I'm afraid.

Public service providers and anyone in receipt of public money is generally legally required to demonstrate that they understand the population they're serving and offer equal access to disadvantaged groups. That is the reason for the question. The bus company don't give a toss who you personally want to have sex with. They want to know whether the bus is a safe space for LGBT people and whether it's accessible for people with disabilities, because it is their duty and responsibility to meet these groups' needs.

Positive discrimination would be supporting / prioritising someone less well able to do the job simply because of their diversity data

But I might argue that if I have 2 people with the same basic qualifications then the free school meal person will likely be better suited to the role than the grade 8 cello because they have achieved against the odds

I might even suggest that someone who has slightly worse formal qualifications might still appear more promising - isn't that the basis of some university entry rules - you get lower offer if you have the right postcode?

Certainly I wouldn't see it as a negative thing

"Prefer not to say" is always an option. If it's not, feel free to email the relevant HR dept and complain. But I would be very, very surprised if it were not. In most cases, the questions themselves are also optional.

That’s actually a very limited range of options these days 😂.
I ignore those qs as much as possible and tick ‘other’ or write N/A as they are ridiculous outside a dating agency.

My organisation (public sector) has recently started gathering data to indicate social mobility among staff - this was one of the questions. It’s one of a suite of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion measures. They are detached from your application so the people sifting will never see them - it’s for monitoring and improvement purposes within the company.

oh God I feel old - it wasn't an option in my time lol. But as the eldest of 6, Mum not working and Dad on a mediocre salary although reasonable for the area we were in I probably should have been. For e.g. we never changed out of clothes when home from school as we didn't have enough for that and weekends (one outfit each basically maybe two tops if lucky) no school trips for me and my sisters as the older group of kids, we took turns having a big present at christmas and birthdays were a book and a thing but less than a 10 er etc. We used to get free milk though lucky us

Positive discrimination is illegal.

Positive discrimination is not illegal, there are multiple guaranteed interview schemes in the UK which employers can offer for people from minority ethnic backgrounds, with disabilities etc