Daily Junction.mobi portalPersonal Finance · March 30, 2026 · Daily Junction Editorial Team · 5 min
Landlords and lenders often need to verify a payslip, P60 or employment. Here is what these documents show, how to check they are genuine, and the warning signs of a fake.
Whether you are a landlord screening a tenant, a lender assessing affordability, or an employer checking a new hire, you will sometimes need to confirm that someone earns what they say they earn. The two documents at the centre of this are the payslip and the P60, alongside direct employment verification. Here is what each one proves, how to check it is genuine, and the warning signs that something has been forged.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Verification must be done with the individual's consent and in line with data protection law.
A payslip is a record of a single pay period — usually a week or a month. A genuine UK payslip should show:
That last item is the verifier's best friend: year-to-date figures let you sanity-check one payslip against another and against the year-end summary.
A P60 is an end-of-year certificate summarising everything one employer paid an employee across a full tax year, including total pay, total tax and total National Insurance. Every employee in a job at the end of the tax year should receive one. Because it is a single annual figure, the P60 is the natural anchor to check monthly payslips against: twelve consistent monthly payslips should reconcile to the P60 total.
A payslip is a snapshot; a P60 is the full picture. Used together, each one validates the other — which is exactly why fraudsters struggle to fake both consistently.
Documents are one form of proof. Confirming the employment itself is another, and often stronger. The main routes are:
A reputable referencing or verification service can pull several of these together. For example, business consultancy CM Beyer offers a structured way to verify a payslip, P60 or employment, which illustrates how formal verification typically combines document checks with direct confirmation.
Whichever route you use, get the individual's consent first. Verifying someone's employment involves personal data, so it must be handled lawfully and proportionately.
Most fakes fail on internal consistency. Work through these checks:
| Check | What genuine looks like |
|---|---|
| Year-to-date totals | Increase logically month to month and reconcile to the P60 |
| Tax code | A valid format, consistent across payslips |
| National Insurance number | Correct format (two letters, six digits, one letter) |
| Employer details | Full name and address present and verifiable |
| Net pay vs bank | Matches the salary credit on bank statements |
| Calculations | Gross minus deductions actually equals net |
Run the arithmetic yourself. On a real payslip, gross pay minus the listed deductions equals net pay, and the year-to-date columns add up across periods. Forgeries frequently get this wrong.
Be especially wary of:
No single red flag is proof of fraud — but several together warrant a direct check with the employer.
Verification sits inside data protection rules. Collect only what you need, use it only for the stated purpose, store it securely, and delete it when it is no longer required. For the wider principles, our explainer on UK GDPR for marketers covers the data-handling basics that apply to any business processing personal information. For employers building these checks into hiring, our guide on how to hire your first employees puts verification in the context of a fair recruitment process.
A payslip proves one pay period; a P60 summarises the whole tax year; together they should reconcile, and that reconciliation is your strongest document check. The most reliable verification, though, is direct — confirming employment with the employer or through records the individual shares, always with consent. Treat round numbers, mismatched totals and wrong tax codes as prompts to dig deeper. A few minutes of cross-checking protects landlords, lenders and employers from the small minority who fake the paperwork.
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