The Pensions Administration Standards Association (Pasa) has published guidance on pre-employment vetting after being made aware of cases where fraud was undertaken or assisted by employees of administrators.

The association explained that there had been instances of people deliberately gaining employment with an administrator with the specific intention of committing fraud, warning that administrators are "inevitably" going to be targeted by fraudsters in light of the important and high value work they undertake.

However, it emphasised that there are pre-employment vetting steps that employers can take when hiring help protect against this problem.

In particular, the guidance, produced by Pasa’s Cybercrime & Fraud Working Group, outlined the type of checks that can be carried out and the information that can be verified by employers, rather than what should be done in every case.

It suggested that a lot of information can be lawfully obtained from the public domain, and used to verify the information provided by the candidate and to check the suitability of the applicant for a position carrying a higher level of risk.

Examples of information administrators could consider undertaking verification checks against included the associations of the individual concerned, such as employment history, residency, including electoral registration, and financial, such as bankruptcy records.

However, the guidance clarified that candidates should also be provided with the opportunity to respond to any information sourced online.

Pasa Cybercrime & Fraud Working Group chair, Jim Gee, commented: “This guidance indicates the types of checks which can be carried out and the information which can be verified, rather than what should be done in every case.

“Administrators are responsible for ensuring any checks and vetting are proportionate, necessary and relevant to the level of risk associated with the position being recruited and carried out in accordance with applicable law.

“If you’re unsure of what checks you can legally undertake and what information you can legitimately process as part of your verification process, you should obtain expert legal advice. There are also various professional bodies which provide detailed guidelines on pre-employment checking.”

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