Privacy notice for Financial Support Services (assessments and awards)

This privacy notice explains how we use and share information. We will review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services and feedback from service users, as well as to comply with changes in the law.

Who we are and what we do

The Assessment and Awards team is responsible for accurately billing council tax, and for administering claims for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction.

We will only collect and use personal information to enable us to identify you and locate your personal data on our systems, ensuring that any discounts, exemptions, and reductions are awarded and the amount due for Council Tax is charged correctly each year. That any entitlement to Housing Benefit and Council Tax reduction is correctly calculated and paid.

For the purposes of Data Protection, Durham County Council is the Data Controller.

The type of personal information we collect and how we collect it

You may be asked to enter personal data on one of our forms or asked to give personal information if you call us. Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

We sometimes need information about people other than the person who has applied for Housing Benefit and Council Tax reduction to work out what that person is entitled to. For example, where a person makes a claim for Housing Benefit, we need information about other people who live in the same household to work out how much Housing Benefit will be paid.

The personal information we collect might include:

name
address
occupancy status such as how many adults reside in the property and who they are
who the liable party for Council Tax is
who the benefit claimant is
employment and benefit details including employer name, payslips, type of benefit and amount
contact details: telephone number, email address
bank details for customers paying by direct debit or benefit claimants who receive their Housing Benefit payments into their bank accounts electronically

The above list is not exhaustive. The information we request will be the minimum necessary in order to provide our services effectively and to perform our statutory duties.

How we collect personal information

We collect information about you in the following ways:

paper based forms
by telephone
by email
by paper correspondence
online web forms and web enquiries from the council's website
information received from council property inspectors and other departments such as planning and housing
information given to staff within customer service centres and to our call team

This information is then stored on our Open Revenues database.

What our lawful basis is to obtain and use your personal information

When we collect and use your personal information we rely on the following power:

Public task: The processing is necessary for us to perform our official function - to administer your council tax account in accordance with:

The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992
Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012
The Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Default Scheme) Regulations 2012

and/or to assess your entitlement to Housing Benefit in accordance with:

The Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006

Legal obligation: processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject.

Legitimate interests: To monitor performance and seek your views on our services. Enabling us to ensure we are delivering an effective and efficient service.

How we use your personal information

We collect and process information about you to accurately charge Council Tax and/or to assess your entitlement to Housing Benefit:

and collect Council Tax in respect of any property you are liable for by the council
to collect overpaid Housing Benefit
to respond to requests for advice and guidance
seek your views or comments on the services we provide
notify you of changes to our services
to respond to a complaint
to respond to Councillor or Member of Parliament enquiries
to monitor our performance
assess your entitlement to discretionary payments in line with council policies
with the Welfare Rights Team to conduct benefit take-up/advice/support or other service the council may offer
for the prevention and detection of crime or fraud including data matching under the National Fraud Initiative

Reasons we may share your personal information

We may share your personal information in certain circumstances:

where we have a statutory obligation to do so, such as for the purposes of the prevention, detection and prosecution of crime or in the interests of public safety
if the benefits to a child or young person that will arise from sharing the information outweigh both the public and any individual's interest in keeping the information confidential

In administering your Council Tax account in accordance with The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 and/or assess your entitlement to Housing Benefit in accordance with The Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 we may share your information with the following organisations:

Department for Work and Pensions
Valuation Office Agency
our housing department
our Welfare Rights team
private sector housing
planning department
customer service centre network
His Majesty's Revenue and Customs
Office of National Statistics

We share information with these departments to prevent fraud and also to ensure we are billing the correct liable parties. We share information with the Department for Work and Pensions with regard to requests for attachments of benefits and with employers for requests for attachments to earnings. We share information with the Valuation Office Agency - to ensure we bring properties into the ratings list and bill the liable party for Council Tax.

We share information with the Office of National Statistics for them to use for statistical and research purposes.

How your information is kept secure

The security of your personal information is important to us. The records we keep about you are secure and are confidential within the council. The council have a range of procedures, polices and systems to ensure that access to your records are controlled appropriately. Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to only use the information for the purposes agreed and keep the information secure and confidential.

How long we keep your information for

After we deliver a service to you, we have to keep your information as a business record of what was delivered. The type of service will determine how long we have to keep it and this is detailed in our corporate retention guidelines.

We will keep your personal data in the following cases:

while you have an active Council Tax account
a closed Council Tax account but with an outstanding balance
an active Housing Benefit claim
a sundry debtor account with an outstanding balance

For all other cases the retention period for the personal data we hold in respect of Council Tax, Housing Benefit and Sundry Debtors is the current year plus a further six years.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example accurate Council Tax billing). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is required for us to satisfy our statutory obligations.

Processing personal information outside of the UK/EU

Your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure and shared with our data processors, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. It may be transferred and stored securely in the UK and European Economic Area (EEA). If your data is stored outside the UK and EEA, it will have equivalent legal protection through Model Contract Clauses.

Marketing

At no time will your information be used or passed to others for marketing or sales purposes, or for any commercial use without your express consent.

Your information rights

Your information rights are set out in the law. Subject to some legal exceptions, you have the right to:

access your personal data
have any inaccuracies corrected
have your personal data erased
place a restriction on our processing of your data
object to processing, and
to request your data to be ported (data portability)

To exercise your rights, you can apply online or download an application form from our Privacy notices and data protection page or you can contact the data protection team at inforights@durham.gov.uk.

To learn more about these rights please see Information Commissioner's Office: Individual rights - guidance and resources.

Further information

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) provides help and guidance to make sure we apply the best standards to protecting your personal information. If something goes wrong with your personal information, or you have questions about how we process your data, please contact our Information Governance team at inforights@durham.gov.uk or write to:

DPO
Chief Executives Services
Council Offices
Green Lane
Spennymoor
County Durham
United Kingdom
DL16 6JQ

If we have not been able to deal with your complaint, you can also contact the .

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745