# employers charging successful candidates for CRB checks



## Throbbing Angel (Oct 15, 2011)

Bloody Hell - how long has this been going on?

I'm only referring t NHS based job as that is all I've seen for myself, but I'm told it happens elsewhere these days

Is that right?  Cheeky twunts, no?


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 15, 2011)

Depending on the employer (often agencies and the cost is deducted from first months pay) this is not a new thing. I didn't know the NHS did it though.


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## Corax (Oct 15, 2011)

Throbbing Angel said:


> Bloody Hell - how long has this been going on?
> 
> I'm only referring t NHS based job as that is all I've seen for myself, but I'm told it happens elsewhere these days
> 
> Is that right? Cheeky twunts, no?


Qu'est-ce le fuck?  Not standard practice in the NHS afaik.  Is it a Foundation Trust by any chance?


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## Mr Smin (Oct 15, 2011)

Cheeky but not illegal. Managers are always on the look out for ways to save a few quid.
If you are in a professional association or a union (RCN or GMB for instance) have a word with the rep - a few years back the unions negotiated that management would pay necessary professional registration fees for nurses, paramedics and so on. This would seem to me to be a fee of the same kind - not got any reference cases to back me up though.


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## equationgirl (Oct 15, 2011)

I know of hospital doctors being asked to pay, but most that I know just sit tight as they know that the trust is trying to save pennies. It normally gets paid in the end.

It's a bit out of order though, when it's a job necessity it should get paid for by the employer.


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 15, 2011)

I had to pay for my own enhanced CRB for a temp MoJ job through an agency. I recouped the money (~£37) by going in late and leaving early for 6 months. I had a voluntary job in the NHS and they paid for it themselves. 

It's shithawk penny pinching IMO.


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 15, 2011)

5t3IIa said:


> It's shithawk penny pinching IMO.



^ this.

I think you might be able to claim it back off your income tax, but that may mean doing a tax return.


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 15, 2011)

Puddy_Tat said:


> ^ this.
> 
> I think you might be able to claim it back off your income tax, but that may mean doing a tax return.



Yeuch.


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## story (Oct 15, 2011)

I have had to have three CRB checks, for three different jobs 

Two of them were paid for by the emplower, but one of them I have to pay for myself.

When oh when will the system be centralised so that we don't have to get a new one for each different job?!


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## moonsi til (Oct 15, 2011)

Mr Smin said:


> Cheeky but not illegal. Managers are always on the look out for ways to save a few quid.
> If you are in a professional association or a union (RCN or GMB for instance) have a word with the rep - a few years back the unions negotiated that management would pay necessary professional registration fees for nurses, paramedics and so on. This would seem to me to be a fee of the same kind - not got any reference cases to back me up though.


 
Professional reg fees are not paid by the employer but the individual...this is the case throughout the UK.


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## equationgirl (Oct 15, 2011)

moonsi til said:


> Professional reg fees are not paid by the employer but the individual...this is the case throughout the UK.


Not necessarily, most employers I've had will pay for a registration fee if required for the job. I'm in engineering.


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 15, 2011)

equationgirl said:


> Not necessarily, most employers I've had will pay for a registration fee if required for the job. I'm in engineering.



Of my last three employers, two (one local authority, one private sector consultancy) paid my annual chartered institute subscription.  My most recent employer (also private sector consultancy) stopped doing so a couple of years ago and advised people to claim it off the income tax.


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## Corax (Oct 15, 2011)

story said:


> I have had to have three CRB checks, for three different jobs
> 
> Two of them were paid for by the emplower, but one of them I have to pay for myself.
> 
> When oh when will the system be centralised so that we don't have to get a new one for each different job?!


The point of it is that you may have committed genocide since starting your last job.

In that case of course, they should be done at regular intervals even if you stay in the same job...


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## moonsi til (Oct 15, 2011)

equationgirl said:


> Not necessarily, most employers I've had will pay for a registration fee if required for the job. I'm in engineering.


 
My post was in response to nurse, paramedics etc....I would like to see the evidence of employers paying these fees. My own experience was when my professional fees almost quadrupled that my emplyer paid half for 3 years.


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## hmmph (Oct 15, 2011)

5t3IIa said:


> I had a voluntary job in the NHS and they paid for it themselves.
> 
> It's shithawk penny pinching IMO.



did they tell you that?  CRBs for volunteers are free


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## Throbbing Angel (Oct 15, 2011)

Its the Morecambe Bay trust

they want to recoup it from the first thee months salary it says

Just seen this on another advert for the same area
"From the 1st June 2011 if the post is subject to CRB disclosure, a charge of £44 for Enhanced *and* £26 for Standard clearance for will be made to the successful candidate(s)."

I hope they mean OR and not AND

just seems totally shitehawk (well put!)


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## 5t3IIa (Oct 15, 2011)

hmmph said:


> did they tell you that?  CRBs for volunteers are free


Oh right. No, can't say they told me anything.


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## Corax (Oct 15, 2011)

Throbbing Angel said:


> Its the Morecambe Bay trust









Yup.  FTs have far more leeway to do whatever they like with regard to T&Cs etc.


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## story (Oct 15, 2011)

Corax said:


> The point of it is that you may have committed genocide since starting your last job.
> 
> In that case of course, they should be done at regular intervals even if you stay in the same job...



I work at all these jobs concurrently.

If I've committed genocide between one CRB check and the next, it means I'm living parallel lives (which of course I am, in the many-universes theory version of things, so I suppose we need a many-universes version of central control for CRBs).


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## Corax (Oct 15, 2011)

Are you confusing common-sense with bureaucracy?


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## story (Oct 16, 2011)

Am I?


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## Mr Smin (Oct 16, 2011)

moonsi til said:


> My post was in response to nurse, paramedics etc....I would like to see the evidence of employers paying these fees. My own experience was when my professional fees almost quadrupled that my emplyer paid half for 3 years.



Round my way there was a specific allowance in your pay to cover HPC fees for Paramedics. I assumed this was national and I admit I may well be wrong regarding nurses. And strictly the individual *was* paying, but that cost was fully offset.


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## Mr Smin (Oct 16, 2011)

Throbbing Angel said:


> "From the 1st June 2011 if the post is subject to CRB disclosure, a charge of £44 for Enhanced *and* £26 for Standard clearance for will be made to the successful candidate(s)."
> 
> I hope they mean OR and not AND
> 
> just seems totally shitehawk (well put!)



Looks like something drafted by the HR department - so you can safely assume it's an error since that's what they specialise in.


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## Corax (Oct 16, 2011)

story said:


> Am I?


It looked like you had some expectation that a bureaucratic system should have some sort of logic or common sense to it, which as eny fule know is just keraaazzy-talk.


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## Voley (Oct 16, 2011)

I had to pay £35 for an enhanced CRB to register with one agency. No refund for it and the fuckers never even found me a job.


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## nadia (Oct 16, 2011)

equationgirl said:


> Not necessarily, most employers I've had will pay for a registration fee if required for the job. I'm in engineering.


You can practice engineering regardless of whether you are registered or not doctors or nurses can't. the reason I am not chartered is noone will stump up the fees


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## stuff_it (Oct 17, 2011)

Corax said:


> The point of it is that you may have committed genocide since starting your last job.
> 
> In that case of course, they should be done at regular intervals even if you stay in the same job...


If an employer is allowed to check, then they should be able to do so online, like with credit checks - any other method is daft really. There could simply be a separate database updated via entries to the PNC which would be accessible to certain employers. It would cost fuckall to run.

 


nadia said:


> You can practice engineering regardless of whether you are registered or not doctors or nurses can't. the reason I am not chartered is noone will stump up the fees


Though supposedly if you are working as an engineer it's not beyond the realms of possibility for you to save up and pay your own fees....or get a career development loan, or whatever....


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## Corax (Oct 17, 2011)

stuff_it said:


> If an employer is allowed to check, then they should be able to do so online, like with credit checks - any other method is daft really. There could simply be a separate database updated via entries to the PNC which would be accessible to certain employers. It would cost fuckall to run.


_Shhhhh!!!!_  That's the kind of idea that leads to Crapita being given a contract that earns them several million before being shelved 8 years later behind schedule and over-budget.

See NPfIT for more details.


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## equationgirl (Oct 22, 2011)

nadia said:


> You can practice engineering regardless of whether you are registered or not doctors or nurses can't. the reason I am not chartered is noone will stump up the fees


Not always, not if there's sign-off responsibility for drawings for a power plant for example. You have to be chartered. Junior engineers are generally expected to be working towards chartership. I pay my own fees of £20 per month.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 22, 2011)

had to pay this  for uni


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## porp (Oct 26, 2011)

5t3IIa said:


> Yeuch.


If you want to claim it back for income tax purposes, as an employee, you would not necessarily have to fill in a tax return.

Just write to your tax office and make your claim.

The bad news: if your claim is checked, it is very likely that it will be knocked back. Such claims fall under S336 ITEPA (Income Tax Earnings and Pensions Act) 2003 -  which has stringent tests for employee's expenses to be set as deductions against salary.

See the detailed guidance in the HMRC Employment Income Manual at EIM31630, the first sentence of which states: "The general rule for employees’ expenses is very restrictive." They're not kidding.

I'm not sure if I can post a link, so I haven't. Happy to point you to the right place if interested.


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## nadia (Oct 29, 2011)

I have been an engineer (proper stuff not fixing photocopiers)for years and in all that time met one person who is chartered and I did not work with them. There is no legal requirement for you to be chartered its a policy requirement you could still turn up to work is the point without legal redress, what a company's policy on this is another matter


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