Conwy Welfare Rights Service Privacy Notice

This privacy notice tells you what to expect from CCBC, when we collect your personal information in relation to CCBC’s Welfare Rights Service.

CCBC is the data controller for the purpose of the Data Protection Act (2018) and the (UKGDPR) and is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number Z4738791.

CCBC is committed to protecting your personal information. As a data controller, there is a responsibility to make sure you know why and how your personal information is being collected in accordance with relevant data protection law.

Why we are collecting your data

The Welfare Rights Service collects your personal information for the purpose of providing advice and support to help you maximise your benefits. The information we collect from you will vary depending on the nature of the service. We will only collect information that is relevant to the issue that you have raised with us.

Our processing activities may include:

• Giving benefit advice by telephone.
• Completing benefit forms and submitting them on your behalf to the Department for Work and Pensions.
• Assisting with claims for Universal Credit.
• Representing you, if you wish to appeal a benefit decision or if your benefit application is turned down.
• Signposting you to other organisations that can help if the information you require is not within our remit. For example referral to agencies that deal with debt.
• Referring you to other department within CCBC, e.g. Occupational Therapy, Homeless Team or to Social Work Teams.
• Collecting financial information from you in relation to assessing your entitlement to benefits and to assist with the assessing of Domiciliary Care charges.
• Collecting personal health information when necessary to assist with benefit claims.

It is important that Welfare Rights keep your information up to date. Please telephone or write to Welfare Rights if you wish to change any of your details held on our database.

The type of personal data we may collect can include:

• Information such as your name, address, date of birth, telephone number, email address and your National Insurance number.
• Details about your household income, any earnings and any benefit income that your receive.
• Details of other people who live in your household.
  
  

We may also collect special category (sensitive data) personal data that may include:

• Information about physical or mental health issues, disabilities and care and support needs that may affect your entitlement to benefit decisions.
• Details about your ethnic origin.

Who we share your information with:

We share information with a range of organisations depending on the service being provided and the statutory requirement that we have to comply with.

Your information may be shared with:

• Other Council departments such as Council Tax, Housing Benefit or the Blue Badge department.
• Other central government departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and HM Revenue and Customs.
• Housing Associations and landlords.
• Voluntary and charitable organisations that may support people in need, e.g. we may refer you to a foodbank or an agency providing grants.

We will not share information with any other party without having had your written consent, which will be recorded in your case notes.

There are other specific situations where we may be required to disclose information about you such as:

• Where we are required to provide the information by law
• When disclosing the information is required to prevent or detect a crime, including fraud.

If you have given us your written permission your information may be shared with, a named friend or family member, a support worker or another individual authorised by you to act on your behalf such as a charity or voluntary organisation representative.

Retention Period

We will retain your personal information in accordance with the retention periods contained in the Council’s document retention policy.

We will retain emails as described in the Corporate IT Email Retention Policy.

As a standard emails are deleted after 5 years. Your email may be deleted before that time, but it would remain on a secure council “journal” until 5 years have passed, after which time it will be deleted.

Your details are held on the WCCIS database and are held in accordance with Data Protection legislation. This  indicates that, unless your case is subject to legal requirements, personal information will not be held for longer than six years after the closure of your case file.

Your information rights:

Under Data Protection legislation you, as the “Data Subject” have the following rights. Where Applicable.

You have the right to Access the information we hold about you.

• Request that we rectify any information about you that is incorrect. Simple inaccuracies, such as address changes will be made, however, depending on the purpose for use. Records, including statements and opinions may not be changed, but there will be the option for you to provide a supplementary statement, which will be added to the file.
• Request that records we hold about you are erased.
• Restrict the use of the information we hold about you if you have raised an objection, whilst your objection is investigated.
• Request that any information that you have provided to us is given back to you in a format that you can give to another service provider if required.
• Object to the use of your personal information, including automated decision making and profiles.
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office if you are not satisfied with how the information held about you has been handled.

How to access the information we hold about you

You have the right to request a copy of your personal information, including video footage that we hold about you.  If you would like to do so, please contact the Data Protection Officer by email or by post giving us as much detail as possible about the information you require.

Please see the subject access request policy and form.

You will receive a copy of the information held about you along with an explanation of any codes used or other clarification that may be necessary.

Requesting that someone else look at your information on your behalf

You can request that someone else looks at your records on your behalf. To do this you will need to give us consent in writing informing us of who you want to look at the information for you. If a relative or someone else wishes to look at the records of a person who is not able to give their consent, this will only be allowed where it can be shown to be in the best interest of the person concerned.

How to contact us:

To exercise any of your rights under the Data Protection legislation please contact:

• By email: info-gov.unit@conwy.gov.uk
• By telephone: 01492 574016
• By post:

If you are not happy with the response you receive from us you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office at:

• Telephone: 029 2067 8406
• Fax: 029 2067 8339
• Email: wales@ico.org.uk
• Website: ico.org.uk

Equalities Information:

We may use information such as your ethic background, first language, gender, sexual orientation and age to gather statistics about the population of the area and the take up of the services. This is to help comply with our legal obligations and to plan the provision of services in the future.

Such analysis will not identify individuals or have impact on entitlement to services and facilities.