Hello. I am about to go through the Moderate Risk Public Trust process. I knew that financials would be asked about, and so this month I have been trying to fix my situation to hopefully have a successful investigation. I was verbally offered the job on 10/1. I should be receiving the job offer and being asked to go through the investigative process very soon. Here are the financial issues I have and the steps I’m taking to fix them:
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Failed to file 2014 and 2015 local taxes. This month I paid the 2014 tax bill, and am in the process of getting the 2015 account figured out -in direct communication with a person at the tax dept working this out.
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Failed to pay my state taxes for 1 out of the 2 states I owed to because I was confused about the process. It was six months overdue, but it is now paid as of this month.
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I have 11 accounts in collections that range from old credit cards, medical, and some utilities. They range from 4 years ago to 1 year ago. This month, I have arrangements to pay all of them off! Some will be settled, some paid in full…but overall they won’t even be in payment agreements, they will be satisfied.
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My credit score is in the high-500’s now, not great I know…but hopefully in about a month from now…these collection agencys should report updated information that I have taken care of these. I’m hoping that the time it takes before the pull my credit and start really looking into the financials, I’ll have most of the proof I need to show I’ve taken care of these concerns. I do have two credit cards that have been active for about 1 year with no late payments (trying to establish new good credit). I have a large amount of student debt but am not late on payments.
- This month I also participated in non-profit credit counseling with NFCC and have a statement letter proving this counseling.
Other than these financials, I have no other concerning parts asked about in the investigation. Most of these debts happened because I was dealing with financial hardships - I mad little money in my jobs (AmeriCorps) and I spent a good amount of time in grad school only working part-time and was struggling to get by, and for 1 1/2 years I was the primary caregiver for my father with cancer and couldn’t work full-time and went through a divorce at that same time. I’m not sure which are good reasons to put and what are not. Is putting “struggling financially” for some of them good enough? By that I mean I had low-income and was finding it hard to get by so unfortunately I couldn’t keep up with these debts.
If I can get advice on if I’m dong the right things and what my chances of being found suitable for the moderate public trust is, I would greatly appreciate it. I would also appreciate some peace of mind that hopefully by the time they pull my credit and look into this, my credit will hopefully be updated and things will reflect more favorably for me once they finally get to reviewing it. Any suggestions of anything else I can do would be so helpful! Thank you!