Benefits Privacy Notice

To carry out the processing to which this notice relates we collect:

• personal information such as: your name, address, date of birth, national insurance number, household information, employment and benefit details, income and expenditure details and financial details
• contact details including your postal address, telephone number, email address
• sensitive personal information such as: information about your physical and mental health

We collect your information from you or third parties as follows:

• from online applications and reporting of change in circumstances
• from telephone calls
• from incoming correspondence such as emails/letters/forms
• face to face with one of our employees or one of our partners
• from third party sources who have a duty to share information to meet our statutory obligations, including the Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC, registered social landlords and other local authorities
• from third party credit searches and data matching exercises conducted through the National Anti-Fraud Network

Your information may be used for the following:

• to carry out benefit assessments and provide advice about entitlement to benefits
• to process Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction, Mobility travel pass and Free school meal applications
• to process any other benefits or allowances we are required to administer
• to process and consider appeals for benefit decisions
• to maximise your income and source any additional financial help for you
• to assist with the prevention, investigation and prosecution of fraud
• for statutory requirements, for example reporting to and administration on behalf of central government

The Council has a legal obligation to process your data for the purpose of assessing entitlement to Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support and Discretionary Housing Payments under GDPR Article 6 (1)(c).

In some circumstances we collect special category data about your health and disabilities. We have a legal basis of substantial public interest to process this information for these purposes (GDPR Article 9 2 (g)).

The processing of your data is necessary to comply with various regulations but not limited to:

• Housing Benefit Regulations 2006
• Social Security Administration Act 1992 and the statutory instruments arising from that Act
• Local Government Finance Act 1992
• Council Tax Support Scheme (prescribed requirements) (England) 2012 regulations
• Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000
• Discretionary Financial Assistance Regulations 2001

We sometimes need to share your information within the Council or with other organisations. We will only share your information when necessary and when the law allows us to, and we will only share the minimum information we need to. For Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction, Discretionary Housing Payments, Free School Meals and the Mobility Travel Pass scheme we may need to share your information with:

• Other internal departments, for example Council Tax, financial services
• Government departments, for example Department for Work and Pensions, HM Courts and Tribunals Service
• Other Local Authorities
• Your Councillor or MP (as your representative)
• Cabinet Office for the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). You can find more information about the NFI at: http://www.doncaster.gov.uk/services/the-council-democracy/the-national-fraud-initiative-and-data-matching
• Policing Authorities for the prevention and detection of a crime
• Housing Associations and private landlords
• Schools and Academies

In certain cases, we may also share your information with other individuals and organisations. For example, if the sharing would help with a safeguarding issue, or help prevent a crime. Sometimes, we might share your information without your knowledge. The Council will never sell your information to anyone else.

We will keep your information for different periods of time, depending on what we are using it for. We only keep your information for as long as we need to, after which we will securely delete the information.

The law gives you specific rights over your information. These rights are:

• to be informed of our use of the information we hold about you;
• to access information we hold about you;
• rectify information about you that is inaccurate;
• to have your information erased (the ‘right to be forgotten’);
• to restrict how we use information about you;
• to move your information to a new service provider;
• to object to how we use information about you;
• not to have decisions made about you on the basis of automated decision making;
• to object to direct marketing; and,
• to complain about anything the Council does with your information (please see the ‘Complaints’ section below).

Some of the rights listed above apply only in certain situations, and some have a limited effect. Your rights are explained further in the Individual’s Rights Procedure on our website, as is how to make a request under one or more of them.

You can request information about yourself by making a subject access request and view the document named above on the Council’s Data Protection webpage.

The Council is required by law to have a DPO. The DPO has a number of duties, including:

• monitoring the Council’s compliance with data protection law;
• providing expert advice and guidance on data protection;
• acting as the point of contact for data subjects; and,
• co-operating and consulting with the Information Commissioner’s Office (see ‘Complaints’ below).

The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at information.governance@doncaster.gov.uk 

If you are unhappy with the way in which your information has been handled you should contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer so that we can try and put things right.

Alternatively, if we have been unable to resolve your complaint, you can also refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights, and they can investigate and adjudicate on any data protection related concerns you raise with them. They can be contacted via the methods below:
Website: www.ico.org.uk   
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.