Those who have gone through background checks, did you have to share if you have had any late payments or defaults?
Eesh, Credit Report looking a lil teccky!
Jokes aside. I was worried about this too because I've recently graduated and have been unemployed for a while and had a horrible housing situation in uni which has messed me a lil bit and left me worse for wear unfortunately.
I have an interview for the SRA on Monday so have been stressing over this. But after digging through i've relaxed a bit more. I will say though i'm more relaxed because I have not defaulted and have only missed 3 times (never again). If you have a strong history of paying on time I also wouldn't worry. There are a few things I noticed which should help.
1. If you're worried, be honest! It's best to ask and clarify rather than wait and worry. They most definitely have had someone in a circumstance like this, especially students. In this economy unfortunate things happen. If they were to reject you for a role and anyone else similar, pfft I don't think many people would be working to be frankly honest! But if you're at least honest and clear with them (not that you are lying) then I'm sure they'll be fine with it. That being said it depends on this next thing whether you should or shouldn't tell them.
2. If its missed payments, etc, then it isn't much of a deal. Personally I wouldn't. Especially if it's no more than 6. I read somewhere that when asking for this history (missed payments) they want to know if it has been more than 6 times. I don't know how universal this is and I imagine people have been late more times than that! Moreover, they need to know what the arrangement was/if it was covered. As long as they were covered and didn't escalate in to something insane like a CCJ then you should be okay. Or if it's current, it needs to be handled.
I'm quoting this from the SRA' character and suitability check which I'm sure all firms use when doing background checks like financial statements. Missed payments do not come up as a cause for concern or something they need to know about. Especially a default. What is only mentioned is a CCJ. I have attached this below for you to see.
here it is -
https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/assessment-character-suitability-rules/
Ultimately, I think its fine as long as it's not something that escalated to a CCJ. For that, I'm not sure what the outcome will be...
The big one is a DBS check. Now for that...oof.