Couple without ‘credit history’ denied Covid test amid fears thousands could be in same position

The couple had to wait five days and walk to a testing site after being told they couldn’t receive a test online.

Laura McCormack and her partner were told they couldn’t receive a Covid test because of a lack of credit history. (BBC/ Laura McCormack)

A couple refused an at-home Covid test because they didn’t have enough ‘credit history’  fear that thousands of others could be in the same position.

Laura McCormack and her partner had three of the main symptoms of Coronavirus and tried to request a test online.  

Despite being on the electoral register and having a bank account, she was told they would have to go to a test site because their names and addresses could not be verified in anti-fraud checks using a database supplied by a credit reference agency.

Ms McCormack said  she had been in the UK less than a year and hadn’t build up a credit history and feared this was why she was refused. 

Speaking on BBC’s Money Box podcast, she said: “The situation seems a bit crazy to me, to be honest. We are guests in the UK, we're trying very hard to keep the population safe by self-isolating and getting tested.” 

"But not being able to verify our identity was very strange. We're both on the electoral roll, we both have bank accounts here, we're on a lease, we both have bills. 

"There are many ways the government could have accessed our identity information, so the reason the government has chosen the credit path is a mystery to me." 

The government uses credit reference agency TransUnion to check addresses to reduce fraud or abuse of the home-testing system and to stop multiple testing kits being ordered, the company said.

Both the Department for Health and Social Care and TransUnion told the BBC that it was not necessary to ‘pass’ a credit check to get a home test kit. 

TransUnion said that in "some cases we may not be able to verify the individual's identity - which can happen for a number of reasons" and said there were other ways to request a test, including calling 119, or going to walk-in test centre.     

Research from credit experts Experian in 2018 suggested that there could be nearly six million people ‘invisible’ to the credit system.