Financial considerations are the top reason for security clearance denial and revocation, year after year. A few ways to mitigate these issues are passage of time between financial issues, and demonstrating a pattern of on-time payments or establishing a path toward repayment of delinquent debt.
If you are concerned about large debts as a security clearance holder, you do have a few options in hopes of maintaining your clearance and career. One subscriber on the ClearanceJobsBlog was interested in tackling her financial troubles:
I have a Secret Clearance and am considering doing a Debt Settlement Program. This means I will stop paying on the accounts and pay my debt settlement company instead. Then in approximately 90 days they will begin the process of paying off my accounts. They said once I start the process, they will advise all companies that I am in a debt settlement program.
I am curious if this will get my clearance revoked. Total debt is $13k.
DEBT SETTLEMENT PROGRAMS AND OTHER WAYS TO MITIGATE FINANCIAL ISSUES
Debt settlement or relief programs are organizations that negotiate with creditors, pay a settlement to resolve money owed, and usually take a percentage of what they pay. The settlement involves them paying a lump sum that could have been less than the full amount you owed.
Some investigators note that buyers should beware of these programs.  “Please no. Lost several employees to these fly by night places. They were collecting money and not paying,” one notes. Another investigator agrees that some of these companies are scams and will not negotiate with creditors until you are over 90 days past due which will result in derogatory credit reports.
For the original poster, $13,000 is a manageable amount to pay back without involving third parties. The easiest way to tackle the debt head on is to pay off high interest creditors first, while making minimum payments on others. Tackle the next highest interest creditor until your debt is paid.
If you have sizable debts higher than you can manage, are late on your mortgage and in danger of losing your home, are constantly being contacted by bill collectors, etc., declaring bankruptcy may be an option – and isn’t necessarily a clearance issue if it is a necessary financial step.
The important thing to note here regardless of the option you go with to manage your debt – self reporting. Anyone dealing with these issues will need to inform their Facility Security Officer/security manager on the steps you are taking to manage your finances if you are in trouble.
Much about the clearance process resembles the Pirate’s Code: “more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” This case-by-case system is meant to consider the whole person, increase process security, and allow the lowest-risk/highest-need candidates to complete the process. However, it also creates a lot of questions for applicants. For this reason, ClearanceJobs maintains ClearanceJobsBlog.com – a forum where clearance seekers can ask the cleared community for advice on their specific security concerns. Ask CJ explores questions posed on the ClearanceJobs Blog forum, emails received, and comments from this site.
