Has the annual canvass included your 2020 Electoral Roll information?
If you registered or submitted changes to your Electoral Roll listing towards the end of 2019, the updated information should now be appearing on your Credit Report.
While this information usually takes around one month for the changes to be reflected, in some circumstances it can take as long as three months to appear on your Credit Report.
What is the annual canvass?
The Annual Canvass is the yearly audit of voters in UK households and the collation of this data. This is carried out between July and the end of the year, with the new version of the Electoral Roll published by most local authorities on the first Monday of December. As it usually takes Credit Reference Agencies about a month to publish this information, it may not be reflected on your Credit Report until as late as February.
Filling in and returning the Household Enquiry Form is a legal requirement but doing so does not automatically register the names listed on the form to vote. Anyone living at the address whose name is on the Household Enquiry Form but is not already registered to vote will be sent an Invitation to Register form. Alternatively, they can register to vote online at any time.
Since 2014, individuals have been required to register themselves to vote, whereas previously one person in each household was required to register everyone eligible to vote living at that address.
How could this affect my ability to get credit?
Because Credit Reference Agencies update Electoral Roll information in tranches, rather than all at once, the exact date that your Credit Report will reflect the most recent record can vary.
The impact of any delay on your Credit Rating will vary, depending on how it reflects your presence on the Electoral Roll from previous years. If you have been registered in the past, it shouldn’t be an issue as lenders will be able to see this historic information and use it as part of their assessment. If lenders do not have any Electoral Roll confirmation for you at your current address, they may carry out additional verification checks.
To see how your Electoral Roll information currently appears to potential lenders, landlords, and employers, or to make sure that it is being correctly reported by your local authority and the UK’s four Credit Reference Agencies, you can try checkmyfile free for 30 days, then for just £14.99 a month after that, which you can cancel online, by phone or by email.
Updated 03/01/2020 by Sam Griffin