Privacy notice: Housing Benefits, Revenues and Benefits (Resources)
You have a right to know about the way information about you is used by us. Please read the following information as it refers to additional rights which you should know about.
Isle of Anglesey County Council will use the information you give and any supporting evidence you provide to assess your liability for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction.
This is required under Social Security Contributions & Benefits Act 1992 and all other relevant regulations associated with the assessment of Housing Benefit. This to include Council Tax Reduction, which is required under Local Government Finance Act 1992, section 13 a (1)(b).
This also to include discretionary housing payments, which is required under The Discretionary Financial Assistance Regulations 2000. This further to include Free School Meals, which is required under the Education Act 2002, section 14.
Isle of Anglesey County Council is the data controller for your information. This means that the council protects your information and decides on how it is used. The legal term for using information is processing. Also, the legal term for information about you is personal data.
Isle of Anglesey County Council is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office. Full details of the registration are available at the ICO register of data controllers.
Purpose of processing
The council will use your personal information for the administration and payment of Housing Benefits, Council Tax Reduction, Discretionary Housing Payments and free school meals - this is the intended purpose of processing. The information will not be used for purposes that are not compatible with why it is gathered in the first instance.
The council may also check or match the information you have provided, or information about you that someone else has provided, with other information held by us as a council. The council may also get or check information you have provided or match information about you with certain third parties to make appropriate and informed decisions with regard to entitlement and liability assessment, debt management, tracing and recovery.
In addition, your personal information will be used by third parties for the purpose of prevention or detection of crime, prevention or detection of fraud, to protect public funds and to make sure that the information is correct.
Legal basis of processing
The council collects and uses your personal information because it has a legal duty or right to do so; or to perform a public interest task; or because you have given your consent. The legal term for this is called legal basis of processing.
In this instance, the council is using your personal information because it has a legal duty or right to do so and it is undertaking a task in the public interest.
We may share your information with other council services in order to ensure our records are accurate and up-to-date, to improve the standard of the services we deliver, and to perform any of our statutory duties, including enforcement duties.
The council will not transfer your personal information to another country.
The council may share your personal data provided for Housing Benefits, Council Tax reduction, Discretionary Housing Payments and free school meals purposes internally to provide other statutory services, but this will only happen on a strictly controlled and regulated basis. The council may also use it to check proof of residence.
The council will collect and share information with public bodies that contains some personal data. Please note that the council will collect and share data with the Auditor General for Wales (AGW) in connection with his audit work and studies. Data sharing will also take place pursuant to the duty at Section 33 of the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009.
The personal information you provide will / can be shared with the following organisations –
- Welsh Government
- HM Revenues & Customs
- Department for Work & Pensions (DWP)
- Rent Smart Wales
- Enforcement Agencies
- National Fraud Initiative
- Police Authorities
- Local Authorities
The list above is not exhaustive. Your information will only be shared for the purpose it is intended.
The information you supply will be kept for as long as is required or necessary in accordance with our retention schedule, and will be destroyed securely.
The retention periods are set out in the council’s list of retention periods, known as a retention schedule. For further information, please contact the Data Protection Officer.
Your legal rights
You have legal rights, and it is important that you know what they are.
You have the right to obtain confirmation that information about you is being used
The council will provide confirmation if you ask for it.
You have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data
You will be provided with copies of your personal data within the statutory period of one month (or if providing your personal data is a complex matter, this will be done as soon as is reasonable within 3 months).
Your personal data will be provided to you free of charge, however, if your request is deemed manifestly unfounded or excessive, a reasonable fee will be charged. You ask to obtain your personal data by contacting the council’s Data Protection Officer.
You have the right to have information about you corrected. This is known as the right of rectification
You have the right to ask that your personal data is rectified if it is incorrect or incomplete. This will be done within 1 month, or if your request is complex, within 3 months.
The right to have personal data erased
You have a right to have personal data erased in specific circumstances:
- Where the personal data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected/processed
- When you object to the council’s processing and there is no overriding legitimate interest for continuing the processing
- If the personal data was unlawfully processed
- When the personal data has to be erased in order to comply with a legal obligation or
- When the personal data is processed in relation to the offer of information society services to a child, for example an 'app' developed specifically for children.
The right to restrict processing
Where it is claimed that data is inaccurate or the right to erasure has been exercised you can require the council to restrict processing until verification checks have been completed.
The right to object
In addition to the right to object to your information being used for direct marketing, you have the right to object to processing based on the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling), and processing for purposes
of scientific/historical research and statistics.
Rights in relation to automated decision making
You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects on you or affects you in a significant way.
Please contact our Data Protection Officer by email, post or telephone if you have any queries about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.
The council’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be contacted by email: DPO@anglesey.gov.uk or SDD@ynysmon.gov.uk .
We hope that our DPO can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your personal information.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.
The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Email: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113.
This Privacy Notice was published on 25 May 2018 and last updated on 21 June 2018
Version 3
Date 21 June 2018