Employees - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We’re excited to share that all BrightPay customers and their employees can now access an Employment Verification service with our external providers – a new way to make your life easier when it comes to verifying your income and/or employment.

What is BrightPay payroll software?

BrightPay is payroll software used by employers to process wages, calculate deductions, and generate payslips. If your employer uses it, you may receive your payslip through email or an employee portal, and it helps ensure payroll compliance and accuracy.

What is Employment Verification and how does it work with BrightPay?

Employment Verification is a service, provided by our external partners, that is integrated with BrightPay. It helps you quickly and securely share your payroll information when applying for things like rent, loans, mortgage, or other services.

Instead of requesting paperwork, packaging, and sending (and waiting), you can choose to share your income details directly from the payroll software used by your employer, to a trusted third party.

How Does It Work?

Imagine applying for a mortgage online. With Employment Verification, you’ll have the option to securely share your income and job details instantly. It’s fast, easy, and you won’t need to worry about sending over physical documents unless you prefer that option. You’re still in control. The data is only used, for the purpose you consent it for.

Is it free?

Yes it is free for employees, and employers.

Is it secure?

Absolutely. GDPR-compliant, encrypted, and shared only with explicit consent.

How is my data stored?

Data is stored securely, encrypted, and handled according to the highest data protection standards. We ensure information is only kept as long as necessary for the intended purpose.

Do I need to learn new processes?

No. Employment Verification from our external partners, integrates seamlessly with existing systems, so there’s no need for complicated new procedures. We make it easy for employers and employees alike.

What if employees don’t want to share their data?

Sharing is entirely optional and only happens with their your explicit consent. Employees are in control of their information.

Can employees’ control who sees their info?

Yes, employees must give explicit consent before any data is shared.

Q: Who can access Employment Verification?

A: Only trusted third parties, like banks, landlords, and government services, and only with the employee’s consent.

What is the maximum amount of monthly data that can be retrieved via the Employment Verification process?

Employment Verification can currently return up to 12 months’ payslip data.

What measures are in place to ensure data security when employees share their income and employment information?

Any data retrieved from a third-party payroll store will be returned via API direct to an onboarded client (e.g., a lender). Data is purposely not played back to the consumer to avoid a bad actor seeking to view payroll data via fraudulent means.

To that end, data transfer is encrypted both in transit and at rest, with industry-standard API authentication practices observed (OAuth2).

What data does the Employment Verification collect?

All data is collected and shared with the employee’s consent. The data varies by use case but includes data normally found on a payslip and is needed to verify income and employment:

• Employment start-date/tenure
• Up to 12 months’ payslip data
• Gross and net annual salary
• Pay date and frequency

Some of your employees’ data, such as their name and date of birth, is submitted by the employee as part of a financial application. It is used, with their consent, to help the Employment Verification locate their data. Subsequently, Employment Verification uses data for a secondary check to ensure employees are matched and authenticated with the correct payroll data.

How will employees know if there is an issue with the data (e.g., wrong data pulled or data doesn’t match)?

We do field-level validation for each data input. If using the Employment Verification screened service, your employee will be given up to three attempts to submit their data. If the match fails, your employee will be asked by the lender to verify their income and employment using traditional methods such as PDFs or paper payslip information.

What happens when an employee has a contracted salary, but then additional earnings on top? Are both pieces of information sent?

Employment Verification will share all contributions and deductions that appear on your employee’s payslip.

Would it be possible for the wrong data to be pulled for an employee? How do you avoid this?

We have a sophisticated matching system that factors the National Insurance (NI) number as a unique identifier that must be an exact match. If an NI number is matched, we do secondary validation based on additional PII (e.g., name, address, etc.).

We also perform field-level validation for each data input, giving the consumer attempts to resubmit if the data could not be matched. To minimise fraud risk, we do not play back the data item that caused the no match to the employee.

Can the lenders run an application for our employee without their consent?

No. Employment Verification applications cannot be carried out by lenders without the explicit consent of the individual. Lenders must capture consent and keep a record of how and when it was obtained. We also retain the right to audit them for evidence of their consent capture and the process used to obtain it.

Can our external providers' employees access the data?

Access is limited to a small number of employees whose roles specifically involve tasks where access to this data is necessary. They have regular access control reviews.

What data (if any) does our external providers store?

Your employees’ PII and a unique ID such as the National Insurance (NI) number are captured in the verification process. This data is used to authenticate your employee’s identity and to ensure the Employment Verification accurately matches the correct payroll data to that individual.

Employment Verification facilitates the transmission of employees’ data between their employer’s payroll or HR platform and the Consumer Service Provider of their choosing. Only the necessary income and/or employment fields required to inform the specific Consumer Service Provider use case are shared, in accordance with GDPR’s data minimisation principle.

Our external providers may hold the data for up to six years for audit purposes and answering consumer inquiries only.