Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust: Experian

(asked on 4th October 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of individuals being subject to credit checking by Experian at Greenwich and Lewisham NHS trust.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 8th October 2019

No individuals have been subject to credit checking by Experian at Greenwich and Lewisham NHS Trust. Rather the Trust has conducted checks on the residency status of patients as they are required to do by law.

Credit checking describes accessing someone’s credit history for the purpose of assessing their suitability for credit. A person’s credit history is the factual record of credit they have used over the last six years.

The residency check, on the other hand, looks at many sources to see whether someone has a digital footprint in the United Kingdom as a proxy for whether they are likely to be resident. A residency check has no impact on credit scores or reports but simply cross-references the information provided with Experian’s existing records, to confirm that further enquires may be required by the Trust to establish a person’s eligibility to NHS funded care.

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