Experian Announces Access Group Partnership Boosting Employment and Income Coverage to 77%

Experian has today announced a new partnership with The Access Group that will allow even more UK employees to digitally share their payroll information to get better access to financial products and services.

Through Experian’s Work Report™¹, the UK’s first digital employment and income verification service, employees who are paid using Access Group’s payroll software will now have the option to consent to share their payroll information with another organisation digitally.

This provides an instant and secure alternative for employment and income verification when applying for a range of financial services, including mortgages.

Applicants are given the option to upload evidence manually via a lender’s existing systems or to use Experian’s Work Report™. If they do, the service automatically accesses – with an employee’s consent - the required records from their employer and passes them to the service provider.

By allowing connectivity to an employer’s payroll data, it can provide direct confirmation of a consumer’s gross and net income, as well as employment status and tenure, in a matter of seconds.

Experian’s employment and income verification services now cover 77% of UK employees.

Paul Speirs, Managing Director of Digital Consumer Information at Experian, said: “Accessing financial products and services is stressful enough without the added pressure of gathering crucial documentation to help confirm payroll information. It’s a hassle for the financial provider, the employer and, most importantly, the applicant.

“Experian’s Work Report™ helps to ease this pain by providing a seamless, digital alternative to traditionally cumbersome processes, helping enable a quicker, more efficient turnaround and improved customer outcomes. We are delighted to be working alongside The Access Group to help take this process one step further into the digital age.”

Charles Butterworth, Managing Director, Access People, commented: “Supporting customers with digital transformation is at the heart of our software solutions at Access. Paying people right ‘first time, every time’ is the standard by which payroll teams are now held to, but it is no longer the only benchmark. With Millennials and Gen Z making up a significant percentage of the workforce, people have come to expect a consumer-grade experience from their work tech, including solutions that facilitate pay. Unlocking digital-first experiences that meet these changing employee expectations is, therefore, increasingly important to our customers and their people.

“By partnering with Experian, we’re able to provide our customers with even greater digitisation of their payroll processes while their employees keep control of their data and personal finances. Experian’s Work Report™ service will enable customers to facilitate a frictionless way for their people to apply for lending, whether that be car finance, a mortgage, or another loan. The solution is an example of intuitive development of HR and pay solutions that add further value for our customers in supporting the wider employee experience.”

The partnership with Access lifts an administrative burden from employees, who chase employers for copies of their payslips; and from HR and Payroll, who have to find and share the data with employees. It also helps employers avoid having to share paper-based payslips, which reduces their carbon footprint.

A recent Experian survey of 230 HR and payroll professionals shows that many large organisations receive an average of 150 requests a month from employees to source and share their payroll data. This equates to 11 hours a month of a HR and Payroll team’s time devoted to managing these requests.

Those firms that are still relying on sharing paper-based payslips also have a significant impact on the environment. Even small firms with less than 10 employees may be generating 1.3m tonnes of CO2 a year, or 26kg of paper, by sharing paper-based payslips.

Experian’s latest report ‘The State of Payroll Today’ is available to read here.

[1] Work Report™ is the first digital verification service that will allow consumers to consent to digitally share their payroll information with another organisation. It provides connectivity to an employer’s payroll data to provide direct confirmation of a consumer’s gross and net income, as well as their employment status and tenure, in a matter of seconds.

The service is fully compliant with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidelines and best practice. Employee data remains under the control of their employer and will only be shared with the approved service provider.

About Experian

Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. During life’s big moments – from buying a home or a car, to sending a child to college, to growing a business by connecting with new customers – we empower consumers and our clients to manage their data with confidence. We help individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly, and organisations to prevent identity fraud and crime.

We have 21,700 people operating across 30 countries and every day we’re investing in new technologies, talented people, and innovation to help all our clients maximise every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Learn more at www.experianplc.com or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group.

About The Access Group

The Access Group is one of the largest UK-headquartered providers of business management software to small and mid-sized organisations in the UK, Ireland, and Asia Pacific. It helps more than 75,000 customers across commercial and non-profit sectors become more productive and efficient. Its innovative Access Workspace cloud solutions transform the way business software is used, giving every employee the freedom to do more of what’s important to them. Founded in 1991, The Access Group employs approximately 6,300 people. www.theaccessgroup.com

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