Data Protection Act of employers and UKBA verification

[elvampiro]

I have income from a large MNC ex-employer that I am using to show points. (In addition to income from my current employer).

When I phoned up my ex-exployer's HR helpline number, they are only happy to answer enquiries about start and end dates and not salaries, because of data protection act.

Is this a problem in any way? I was hoping UKBA/HO can override those and get those checked, as they are government agencies?

In any case, I have written to my ex-employer and signed a letter saying I am happy with my information being disclosed to UKBA/HO. Hope this works.

Would love to hear if you had a similar experience and what you did.

[elvampiro]

Incidentally, had the same problem with the bank for bank statement. Have given the customer care number as the contact details in the application. Am hoping the government authorities like UKBA and HO have the clearance to query and get the info through their own channels.

[ankitv]

Surely the employers could provide you the gross salary that you're employed on?

If they still cant provide it, ask them to mention the reasons why they cannot mention the gross salary or payment breakdown for months that you were paid.

And wouldnt the UKBA be able to corss reference the amount from your bank statements and payslips.

[closer1973]

what i was told by my employers is that the ho can verify with hmrc if of course your salary goes thru the tax system(as that is gov to gov agencies) but cant force your employer to disclose this as they may only agree to verify if you work there or not and your company may verify your earnings based on a yes or no answer as they cant tell them on data protection as they say but they are allowed to say yes/no eg: 'A' said he earned £20000 for 10/11 yes or no?