Hi,
I'm at the same stage as D1939, indeed it was a pleasure to meet him at the medical centre last week!
I too am having a little hiccup with the screening process and the requirement for a second hr reference.
When talking about the 3 year work history, I know that somewhere in the small print it says that the screening covers 3 years of work history but that if all those 3 years have been with the same employer, then the previous employer will need to be contacted - and in my case that goes back more than 12 years to an employer who no longer exists!
So they asked me to provide payslips (don't have those after that long!) and then bank statements to verify the employer.
If you can't get a reference directly from your previous employer, and you can't get a bank statement (because most banks only offer 6 years of history) then it might be an idea to go to this link:
https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/NIStatement
and ask HMRC for an NI statement - this is free and provides details back to 1975-6 of the NI you have paid, crucially, also including the employer name on the statement!
It might be worthwhile ordering one now, just in case as they do take a while to come through, I didn't know about this service until just over a week ago and have ordered one just in case the bank statements aren't enough, although they hopefully will be.
Good Luck