Benefits

The following information provides details on how we may collect use and where appropriate share personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). It should be read in conjunction with the Council’s privacy notice document.
 

Why we collect personal data

The information we collect from you and the information provided to us by the Department for Work and Pensions is required to calculate your Housing Benefit and/ or Local Support for Council Tax claim. In order to calculate Housing Benefit and Local Support for Council Tax we collect information about you, your partner, your dependents and other adults that live in your household.

 

What personal data we collect

The personal data we collect will include:

• name
• address
• email address
• telephone number
• date of birth
• National Insurance number
• earnings and employment details
• benefits and allowances
• bank accounts
• capital and savings
• investments
• property ownership
• rent paid
• landlord details
• immigration details
• and any other information required to calculate your Housing Benefit and or Local Support for Council Tax

In some circumstances we'll need more details and sometimes sensitive personal data, for example information about physical or mental health. 

See our Data Protection Policy for details on how we define personal and non-personal data.

We may monitor and record electronic communications (website, email and phone conversations) for a number of reasons such as:

• staff training
• records of conversations
• the detection, investigation and prevention of crime

We will inform you if your call is being recorded or monitored. Emails that we send to you or you send to us, may be retained as a record of contact and your email address stored for future use in accordance with our retention periods. If we need to email sensitive or confidential information to you, we may perform checks to verify the correct email address and may take additional security measures.

See our Data Retention Policy for further details about the steps we take when we collect your personal data.

How we use your personal data

We'll only use your personal data in accordance with data protection legislation, and for the purposes stated in this privacy notice. We use the information you provide to administer Housing Benefit under the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006 and to administer our Local Support for Council Tax scheme under S13A and Schedule 1a of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. The scheme in respect of pension age applicants is defined by Central Government within the Council Tax Reductions Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012.

 

• We will also use the information to make you liable (if appropriate) for Council Tax at your address.
• The Council will use your information to help collect Council Tax.
• The Council will use the information held to assist in the recovery of Housing Benefit Overpayments.

We'll:

• only ask for what is necessary for the purposes of administration of Housing Benefits and Local Support for Council Tax.
• protect your personal data and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
• ensure you know if you have a choice about giving us personal data
• only share your personal data with other Scarborough Borough Council departments or with external partners, agencies and contractors involved in delivering services on our behalf
• make sure we don’t keep it for longer than is necessary
• delete or destroy it securely when we no longer have a need to keep it

We ask that you:

• give us accurate information
• tell us as soon as possible of any changes
• tell us as soon as possible if you notice mistakes in the information we hold
• about you

From time to time, we may conduct or ask you to take part in a survey to get your feedback, comments and opinions to help us improve our services. We will only do this where we have your explicit consent to contact you for this purpose.

Who we share your personal data with

We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:

• law enforcement
• fraud investigations
• regulation and licensing
• criminal prosecutions
• court proceedings

We must protect public funds and may use personal data and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, collect taxes and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. To do this, your
personal data may be shared with other departments within the Council and bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, including the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, the Police and
other local authorities.

We will also use the information for the purpose of performing any of our statutory functions. We will make any disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or
auditing/administering public funds. We may share the details with other services within the Council, and with organisations that handle public funds, to assist in the processing of other benefits and in the recovery of outstanding amounts of
Housing Benefit which has been overpaid.

We will not discuss your Housing Benefit claim with your landlord unless we have your consent to do so. If we have your consent we can tell them about the progress of your claim.

If your Housing Benefit is paid directly to your landlord we can give your landlord details regarding payment dates, amounts and any overpayments we ask them to repay.

We do not disclose or share sensitive or confidential information without your explicit consent except where disclosure is required by law, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to do so, would put you or someone else at risk.

Our legal basis for collecting and sharing personal data

We do this as a task carried out under a legal obligation. Housing Benefit and Local Support for Council Tax assessments are made using regulations laid down by the Government and our Local Support for Council Tax Scheme as defined
above. We will not be able to assess any entitlement without the personal data you provide us with.

When we use your personal data, we are relying on the below legal reasons:

• Legal obligation: It is required by law including under the Housing Benefits Regulations 2006, Local Government Finance Act 2012, and the Fraud Act 2006 and other relevant legislation.
• Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called “special category data” which requires more protection to keep it safe. This is often information you would not want to be widely known and is very personal to you.

It includes:

• Gender
• Ethnicity/nationality
• Physical or mental health

We will take extra care of this data. The legal reason for us to collect and use this personal information is:

• It is necessary to perform our statutory duties or to make reasonable adjustments, particularly in relation to debt recovery

How long we keep your personal data

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We will keep your personal data in line with
our retention schedule. We will delete or destroy your personal data securely. At the end of the retention period, we may pass any relevant information to the Archives where it is required or appropriate to do so.

Further processing of personal data

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we'll provide you with a new notice.

The new notice will:

• explain this new use before we start the processing
• set out the relevant purposes and processing conditions
• where and whenever necessary, we'll seek your consent to the new processing, if we start to use your personal data for a purpose not mentioned in this Privacy Notice.

See our Data Protection Policy for details about the further processing of personal data.

Your rights relating to your personal data

When we collect your personal data we'll tell you how we are going to use it. Where we process your personal data, you have a number of rights under data protection law.

Find information about your rights on our UK GDPR page.

Further information

If you have any questions, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us at dataprotection@scarborough.gov.uk or on 01723 232323 or write to:

Data Protection Officer
Scarborough Borough Council
Town Hall
St Nicholas Street
Scarborough
North Yorkshire
YO11 2HG