Revenues and Benefits privacy notice

We use information about Council Taxpayers, Business Ratepayers, Housing Benefit, Discretionary Housing Payment and Council Tax Support applicants and sundry debtors, to enable us to carry out specific duties that we are responsible for and to provide you with a service.

The information we hold about you and your household is used to administer and fulfil statutory duties placed upon the Council relating to the administration of Council Tax, Business Rates, Housing Benefit, Discretionary Housing Payments and Council Tax Support.

It is important this information is kept up to date to ensure that our staff are able to provide you with the accurate help, advice or support you need.

If you do not keep us (and other relevant organisations such as DWP or HMRC) up to date, then we will not be able to administer the services we provide accurately, and you may receive the incorrect entitlement.

We will, where necessarily, use your data to test our processes to ensure that they are robust. This will be done in a controlled, and protected environment ensuring that the data used is safe

• basic details about you, for example, name, address, date of birth
• unique identifiers (such as your NI number, bank account details)
• contact we have had with you, for example, appointments & letters of correspondence
• notes on accounts and reports about your relevant circumstances
• details and records about the service you have received
• relevant information from other people that we have been in contact with, in relation to the service that you have received
• application forms for exemptions, discounts and reliefs you have completed for Council Tax and Business Rates
• Direct Debit instructions for payment being made
• application forms and supporting evidence submitted for Housing Benefit, Discretionary Housing Payments and Council Tax Support
• Information provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) via secure electronic interfaces or information we have gathered from DWP systems by means of direct access.

Under Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is:

• 6(1)(e) 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.
• 6(1)(c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).

The legislation that allows us to perform our statutory duties is:

• Local Government Finance Acts 1988 and 1992
• Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
• Localism Act 2011

and related Regulation, Statutory Instruments and Guidance.

We may process special category information for the following reasons under Article 9 of UK GDPR:

• 9(2)(b) Processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement.

Information is kept is line with our Retention Policy.

We have security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Those processing your information receive regular comprehensive mandatory training to ensure that they know they must treat information about you in line with the law.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

We take any data breach very seriously and will carry out detailed investigations, and adapt procedures, to ensure that the risk of future data breaches are reduced if not removed.  

Those persons involved could be subject to removal from their role or if the breach is serious enough, treated as gross misconduct and dismissed from employment.

Information will only be shared with third parties if they have a genuine and lawful need for it. This could include:

• third party organisations who are contracted to provide services on our behalf for example, debt collection agencies
• where the health and safety of you or others is considered to be at risk
• when the law requires us to pass on information under special circumstances for law enforcement functions
• crime prevention
• detection of fraud as part of the National Fraud Initiative
• where a formal court order has been issued

• Your data may be reused for a purpose other than it was provided for, where it is believed there is a benefit to you by reusing your data. For example, identifying underclaiming of benefits or to grant additional support automatically.
• Where reusing of data provided by DWP or HMRC data is necessary the relevant data reuse permission will be sought from DWP or HMRC.

Anyone who receives information from us has a legal duty to keep it confidential.

We may work with third party organisations to carry out our business where it is more cost effective for the Council. This could include the mailing of bills and correspondence.

Information is processed within the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA).

Often people give their consent for the service to share their information with someone else, for example a family member, a landlord or someone looking after their affairs. You can do this by telling the service you give consent either in writing or over the phone. You can withdraw this consent at any time, by writing or telephoning us.

Under Data Protection legislation you have several rights, including the right to have your records rectified (where the law permits) and the right to ask for access to all the information the Council holds about you. These rights are listed in more detail on the Authority website under Data Protection.

Please contact us at information.governance@northtyneside.gov.uk if you wish to make an information rights request.

If you have any worries or questions about how your personal data is handled, please contact the Data Protection Officer at information.governance@northtyneside.gov.uk

If you are unhappy with the way the Authority has handled your data, you may contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)