I think this subject needs a thread of its own.
Most of us need money to survive and the obvious way is to find some kind of paid employment because state benefits are inadequate.
I find it very difficult to find work because of long gaps in my work history, periods of illness such as heat failure. I have other multiple health problems, both physical and mental, I have had suicide attempts and intervention of mental health teams.
The question is what do I declare to potential employers and how much do I lie about.
In the past I have had extensive help and advice from job centres and organisations that they referred me to.
Three of these organizations have insisted I lie, change dates by months or years to get rid of embarrassing employment gaps, falsify health declarations, never mention stress, autism or mental health. One even insisted that I lie about prescription medication questions on a health declaration that I was asked to complete when i passed the interviews and was offered a job.
People who came out prison were told to say that they had been in the army instead and could not discuss that time because of confidentiality and matters of national security.
Academic qualifications, I never passed my English language exam at school, I was ordered to say that I had because employers wouldn't check and nobody would asks to see qualifications.
Now my personal experience.
In my last job in 2022 they checked everything before I was offered the job, they insisted that I account for all my time in the last 5 years, all employers all gaps in employment, references were all checked and they even demanded that I upload full bank statements. One big problem was that the job centre refused to confirm my periods of unemployment because of the data protection act. I had to get third party proof and references covering my periods of unemployment.
In a previous job I had health issues and the employer went through my health declaration with a fine tooth comb looking if I had lied about my health to try to justify in dismissing me. My job centre approved employment advisor had insisted that I lie about my health completely, fortunately I ignored her and had been 90% honest on that form. So they couldn't fire me for lying. I was still sacked for being unsuitable for the job and other dubious reasons.
Now for lies about qualifications. Again employment advisors ordered me and others to lie. But in my last job, part of my job was checking other people's qualifications and insisting they upload their actual qualifications so I could check if they were valid.
The big question to lie or not to lie.