If a job application asks for marital status and children is it compulsory?

[PillockOfTheCommunity]

I've got an application form for a job, next to DOB and Age it has (not compulsory) but then it asks for marital status and children's sex/ages

Can they ask this and do I have to fill it out?

Seems a bit odd to want to know whether I've got boys or girls!

It also asks about health, I suffer from Narcolepsy but don't usually mention it until Interview stage, do I have to put it on the form?

That seems very odd to me. What's the job (not that it should mattter)? Trouble is you'd look funny leaving it blank....

is it a seperate sheet? ie a general demographic just for survey purposes? i've had a couple of those (a bit like ethnic monitoring) - if so it shouldn't be part of the main form, just loose and not have any identifying details...
some have a seperate health questionnaire which is completed but not normally used until after interview (and only then by occupational health or for screening), unless you suffer from something which rules you out of the job for some reason. please tell me you don't want to be a trucker, for example...

that's just it, I don't want my leaving it blank to look suspicious but equally don't see why I should tell them those things at this stage.

The job is an Executive PA role for a uk company, although they have close links with Europe.

I would leave the marital status/children bit unfilled - or ring the firm's HR and question it. Is it on one of those separate sheets where they ask about ethnic origin for statistical purposes? I suppose they would argue that it's fine as long as all candidates, male and female, answer the questions, and you would struggle to prove that failure to get the job is the result of what you've answered there.

re the narcolepsy - you have to answer the question, but unless it would affect your ability to do the job they can't use that information in the selection process. I think.

Why would they need to know this information . In my last organisation (not that they would have asked about marital status), any kind of personal information was blanked out of the app form anyway. There was seperate Equal Ops form too...

i am sure they cant ask those things or dob

pmsl

no, I don't plan on becoming a real hairy trucker!

It's not seperate, it asks my name, then my age, then the marital/children bit, then referees, work history, education, all on one sheet.

I know they can't ask for dob, and presumably so do they hence the (not compulsory) next to it. Which is what made me wonder, why would they put it on that box and not the others, unless I have to answer them?

i would leave it blank

i leave the salary blank on application forms and i have still had interviews

Hi POTC

We ask for DOB on a tear-off section, along with ethnic origin etc. but to ask about marital status and children seems strange.

We ask the question at interview, but make sure we ask all candidates, both male and female (about children, not about marital status).

Re health issues, we have a separate medical information sheet which we ask to be completed before interview. We have a duty of care then to ensure the job is alterered where necessary.

HTH. x

How do you use the information about how many kids people have, sexonlegs?

They aren't allowed to ask you any of those things.

Unfortunately I have yet to have a job interview, even with law firms, where I was not asked if I had children or if I was married.

We don't ask how many dc - that is just plain weird. We just ask if they have any.

So do we think if I leave it blank they are likely to think i'm being awkward and therefore be less likely to interview me?

Do you want to work for a company that seems to be setting out to discriminate against women?

I don't think they are though, I think it's just the way most companies have these forms

I spoke at length with someone in HR there before she sent me the forms and she said they are great people to work for. I say that about my present employer and wouldn't if I didn't mean it.

She is hardly likely to say that they are crap to work for, to someone deciding whether to apply for a job there.
You might say that about your present employer but then you are trying to leave

I'm leaving for very different reasons though, and don't really want to be leaving.

And no, she's not going to say it's crap, but she didn't need to be quite as positive about it if she didn't believe it!

Exactly, they have these forms which are institutionally discriminatory. Why do they need this information? They don't. Don't give it to them.

I think you're just a little bit too, erm, strong minded for us to agree . You can't change something from the outside and if no one points it out to them how will they be encouraged to amend it? If I only looked at jobs where there were no issues at all I'd never work.

that was to georgi btw!

thank you waswondering, that's useful to know

is the MN equivalent of go fuck yourself, so I will consider myself told.

Is that true about s. I always thought they were genuine .
Naive, naive....