Employment Letter for a Home Loan: Evidence Guide

A letter of employment confirms an employee’s job and remuneration from the employer’s records so a home-loan lender can assess those facts. To prepare one, identify the evidence gap, have the employer issue a factual letter and reconcile it with the application before submission.

For a broker, the aim is to explain your client’s employment clearly without turning expected income into a promise. The letter supplements the selected lender’s evidence requirements. It doesn’t automatically replace payslips, bank statements or further verification.

When an Employment Letter Helps

Request an employment letter when the usual income documents leave a fact unclear, such as a recent start date or a change in employment status. It can explain which part of pay is base salary, when a fixed-term contract ends or the agreed terms of a return from leave.

Write down the question the letter must answer before requesting it. For example, a payslip might show earnings but omit whether a client has moved from casual to permanent employment. The employer can confirm the effective date and current hours from its records.

The lender’s evidence route determines how the letter fits. As at October 2026, NAB’s home-loan application guide lists an employer letter as one income-evidence option for wage or salary earners. It also lists bank statements showing the last two salary payments or two of the last three payslips.

Westpac’s February 2026 minimum required documents checklist specifies payslip routes for pay as you go (PAYG) base income. Those routes include two consecutive payslips without year-to-date totals, or one year-to-date payslip covering the last two pay cycles. The payslips must be no more than two months old at formal approval.

These examples show why a letter isn’t a universal substitute. Use the evidence route that applies to the selected lender and income type, with the letter answering the additional question. Keep the remaining application evidence together using the document collection guide.

Before asking the employer to write, record the lender, the missing fact and the relevant evidence requirement. Bulma’s Policy Advisor quotes the lender policy behind its answers, which a broker can retain with the file notes.

Facts the Employer Confirms

The employer confirms facts it can support from employment and payroll records, including the employee’s current status and the basis of their pay. Ask for the details needed for this file, using the checklist below as a request guide.

• The employee’s full name and the employer’s legal name, with the trading name explained if different.
• The role, original commencement date and any later effective date for a change in status or hours.
• Whether employment is permanent or fixed-term, and whether the employee works full-time, part-time or casually.
• Ordinary contracted hours, or the hourly rate and the recorded basis for hours where relevant.
• Current gross base pay and pay frequency, with the treatment of superannuation made clear.
• Variable pay received over a stated period, separated from base pay and from any projected future amount.
• The letter’s issue date and the authorised signer’s name, role, signature and employer contact details.

Include probation or a contract end date when it answers the lender’s question. For return-to-work evidence, the employer can report the agreed return date, hours and remuneration. Keep an expected return separate from a confirmed arrangement.

An employer can describe a bonus paid during a stated period. Calling that bonus guaranteed next year needs a documented contractual basis. Praise such as ‘excellent employee’ doesn’t establish income or a right to future hours.

Reconcile the letter with payslips, salary credits and the application. Gross pay is the amount before deductions, so it won’t usually equal the net bank deposit. A fortnightly amount and a twice-monthly amount also produce different annual totals.

If names differ, establish the reason and retain the supporting record. When pay has changed, record the effective date so older payslips don’t appear to contradict the current letter. For variable hours, use the casual employment home-loan guide to distinguish employment confirmation from the lender’s income assessment.

Employment Letter Sample

The following employment confirmation letter is a fictional Australian home-loan example. Every person, employer and figure is invented. It shows wording and layout only and isn’t an issued or signed document.

Harbour Office Services Pty Ltd

3 October 2026

To whom it may concern

Re: Confirmation of employment for Alex Taylor

Harbour Office Services Pty Ltd confirms that Alex Taylor commenced employment on 14 February 2022 and currently works as an Operations Coordinator.

Alex is a permanent full-time employee with ordinary contracted hours of 38 hours per week.

Current gross base salary is $91,000 per annum, excluding employer superannuation contributions. Base salary is paid fortnightly at $3,500 gross per pay period.

The remuneration stated above excludes overtime and bonuses.

This confirmation records current employment terms as at 3 October 2026.

Morgan Lee

Payroll Manager

In this fictional example, $3,500 multiplied by 26 fortnightly pay periods equals $91,000. An actual employer must use its own payroll basis and records. Copying these figures or names into a client file would create false evidence.

Adapt the Sample From Employer Records

Use the sample as an employment-letter template in Word or another document editor. The employer replaces the fictional contents, adds its genuine letterhead and verification contact details, then dates and signs the final letter. Export the completed document as a readable PDF if that is the lender’s required format.

The following fields are optional and circumstance-specific. Add only the fields needed to answer the selected lender’s request, and have the employer confirm each statement from its records.

Optional field	Employer completion prompt	Verification needed for this file
Casual-to-permanent change	State the original start date, date permanent employment took effect and current contracted hours	Compare with the status-change record and payslips after that date
Fixed-term employment	Record the actual contract commencement and end dates	Match the signed contract, including any documented extension
Probation	State the recorded probation status and relevant date	Match the employment record and lender’s probation requirement
Variable remuneration	Show the amount paid, type of payment and period covered	Reconcile with payroll totals and the lender’s treatment of that income
Return from leave	State the agreed return date, ordinary hours and pay on return	Match the documented arrangement and lender’s return-to-work requirement
Employer verification contact	Provide the authorised contact’s role and genuine business contact details	Confirm the contact route independently before disclosing client information

The sample doesn’t prescribe statements about future job security or loan affordability. An employer must issue the contents it can substantiate, and the lender decides whether that evidence meets its policy.

Verify the Letter

Verify the letter by confirming the issuer, reconciling the contents and recording any employer contact within the client’s authority. A signed PDF alone doesn’t establish that the stated employment details are accurate.

NAB’s July 2025 home-loan application form includes an authority for NAB to contact an employer. It covers confirmation of employment details, including salary and length of employment. That authority names NAB, so it doesn’t by itself authorise a broker to make the same enquiry.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s consent guidance says consent must be informed, voluntary, current and specific. Explain who will contact the employer, what information will be requested and why. Follow your brokerage’s privacy process and the lender’s required authority.

1. Confirm the client’s authority for the proposed employer contact. Check that it covers the contacting party and purpose before sharing personal information.
2. Establish an independent employer contact route. Use the employer’s official website or a previously verified business contact, then ask for its authorised payroll or human resources representative.
3. Validate the document. Confirm who issued the letter and their authority, and compare the employer name and contact domain with independently confirmed details.
4. Reconcile the facts. Compare the employee name, dates, status and remuneration with the application and supporting records. Record any explanation for a genuine difference.
5. Retain the result. Keep the issued letter and a dated verification note, including the contact route, person contacted and facts confirmed, under your file-retention process.

Employee-record information is personal information under the privacy regulator’s guidance. Request only the employment facts needed for the loan file. For return-to-work evidence, request the employment arrangement and omit unrelated medical history.

If a letter’s pay conflicts with the application, pause submission and refer the discrepancy to the responsible broker. The employer can correct its own letter. The broker must establish the verified facts before changing the application or recalculating income.

When the employer won’t answer by phone, use its authorised written verification process and seek the lender’s acceptance of that route. If the issuer cannot be authenticated, retain the concern and escalate through the brokerage’s fraud process. Don’t edit a signed letter to make the documents agree.

Choose Confirmation, Proof or Offer Evidence

Choose an employment confirmation letter for current facts and an offer letter for proposed employment terms. The document’s contents and status matter more than its title.

A proof of employment letter, employment verification letter or statement of employment can confirm the same current facts as a confirmation letter. A recruitment reference or rental employment reference may omit pay or the effective date of current terms. It needs those facts before it can answer the home-loan evidence question.

An employment offer letter records the proposed role and its terms, including the start date and remuneration. An accepted offer records acceptance of those terms. It doesn’t prove the employee has started work or received that income.

For a new job, retain the employer-issued offer or contract and its acceptance evidence where the lender requires them. Add current employer confirmation once employment starts, and obtain payslips when the selected evidence route calls for them. Label future commencement and remuneration as proposed terms until the relevant facts occur.

Use the fictional confirmation sample for existing employment, with only the applicable optional fields. Keep termination notices, visa letters and recruitment references separate from this lender-evidence template. Don’t use a confirmation letter to negotiate an offer or invent a guarantee of continuing employment.

Before lodging, the responsible broker must be able to trace every employment and income figure to the employer’s records or the required supporting evidence. The final file must identify the document type, contain the applicable authority and leave no unexplained contradiction between the letter and application.