Public Trust with Current Financial Issues that aren't going away soon

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
1

Hi, I need some advice and would appreciate any help. I’ve been reading the forum but can’t find questions that quite meet my situation.

I am up for a job that will require a public trust. I’m 99% sure I have the job and I expect an offer shortly. Currently I work for a private company but prior to this job I had a DHS ICE EOD public trust(high risk) which was approved and finalized around June 2017 (I did the eqip around 09/16 - had my intial approval in 3 weeks) and then for varying reasons I left that job and ended up with the private company I currently work for. I had current credit issues when I got the EOD public trust and I just had to explain to the investigator why I had these issues and what I planned to do to mitigate those issues and I still got the public trust.

Now a bit over a year later, my husband is being laid off and we have no choice but to file bankruptcy to clear our debt. We have had to wait on filing that bankruptcy because our attorney wanted to be sure my husband was going to be laid off before filing which would help him determine which type of bankruptcy to file. Additionally, he has advised us only to pay our secured debt and not our unsecured and to save all our money which is exactly what we have been doing pending this bankruptcy. We have not filed yet but we will shortly and I will have no choice but to file for bankruptcy otherwise I will be sued by my creditors so I’m pretty much stuck with having to file.

So my credit is in really bad shape. I really want to take this job!!! But I am worried. Given my situation with the loss of my husband’s job, I am worried about taking this new job and losing it because I can’t get the public trust. The problem is that I have no idea if given our situation, I would still be denied the public trust.

Outside of these credit issues that have been a problem for a while, I am squeaky clean. I have never had any problems with the police, I’ve never been arrested. I don’t do crazy political things, I’m not a protester or a member of any group that might be of concern. Any pot smoking I did was in my teens and many many years ago. I disclosed all that for my EOD so they know all of that. I’m a pretty boring person. :slight_smile:

Does anyone have any advice regarding this situation? I’m not sure what the risk level is for this public trust. Is it appropriate to accept the position pending initial approval on the public trust? DHS ICE EOD had that initial approval after 3 weeks that allowed me to start working so I felt more comfortable taking that job but is that true of all agency public trusts?

Thanks in advance.

2

Initial approval only means there are no glaring issues that would disqualify on-boarding. It doesn’t sound like an investigation was completed, so you are starting form scratch. Given your current situation in which you have not yet filed for bankruptcy and have all of these delinquent debts, the financial issues are a serious concern that would have to be resolved before a favorable determination could be made. You only listed the fact that yoru husband lost his job, but there arfe other factors to consider: overextended on credit; buying things based on want and not need; no financial planning etc… there will be a risk in leaving your current job, however, getting all the information out there up front, having a plan going forward to resolve the debt, and providing the documentation showing what you are doing to address it could mitigate the concerns.

3

Hi, thank you, that was very helpful! The EOD public trust was investigated and completed. I had met with the investigator and we went over the credit, they spoke with my employer etc. And then I was notified the public trust was approved. But this time around it’s a bit different.

Thanks again for the info, that gives me a lot to think about.