Housing benefit and council tax reduction privacy notice

The Revenues and Benefits Service is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. 

For the purpose of the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation, the data controller is New Forest District Council, Appletree Court, Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, SO43 7PA (data.controller@nfdc.gov.uk). 

What type of information we collect and why we need your personal information

We need your personal information to administer claims and entitlement to housing benefit, council tax reduction, and local welfare provision. This includes your name, address, National Insurance Number, bank details, dates of occupation, income and capital and who else lives with you along with their details.  We will also need details of your landlord and the amount of rent paid. 

We will not be able to process your claim without this information.

We will also keep contact telephone numbers and email addresses so that we can contact you.

Where we store your personal data

Your data will be securely held electronically and will not be stored in a country outside the UK. All paper records containing your personal information will be held securely in our filing systems.

We make sure we do not keep your details for any longer than is necessary and when we no longer have a need to keep your details, we will delete or destroy your details securely. For further information on our policy for retaining personal information, you can request to see our retention guidelines.

Who we share your data with

We may share your information with other teams within the Council such as Council Tax, Housing Services, Customer Services, and Corporate Investigations in order to provide our services, carry out our public tasks, to keep our records up to date, for law enforcement and to protect public interests.

If you ask a Councillor for help we may pass information to them and other services to enable them to help you.

We may also share information about you to third parties where permitted or required by law to do so for the prevention and detection of fraud and the protection of public funds. This may include other local authorities and government departments or agencies carrying out their public tasks, such as the council's Collection Agents, employers, Hampshire County Council, Southern Water, Department of Work and Pensions, Her Majesties Revenues and Customs, the Police in carrying out criminal investigations, and data matching via the National Fraud Initiative.

We will not share your information unless the law allows or requires us to do so. 

If you fall behind with your council tax payments, Officers may need to read your application to assist you.  We may also disclose information when necessary to prevent the risk of harm to an individual.

Your rights concerning your information

You have certain rights under GDPR including:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access to your personal data
• The right to have any inaccuracies corrected
• The right to have your records deleted
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• The right to automated decision making and profiling

What are the legal grounds for processing your information?

• Where it is in the public interest to do so.
• In order to comply with a legal obligation; for example Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 and The Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Default Scheme) Regulations 2012. 
• Where it is in the legitimate interest of NFDC to do so; for example the prevention and detection of fraud.
• Where we process special categories data such as disability, we will do this on the basis of explicit consent, substantial public interest or under social security law requirements.

More information

For further information, plus information on access, portability, withdrawal of consent, correction etc. please see:

Information Rights Policy (PDF, 237 KB)

If you have a concern about the way we collect, store or use your personal information, please contact us in the first instance. 

• Call us on 01590 646119
• Email us at benefits@nfdc.gov.uk
• Or contact our Data Protection Officer on data.protection@nfdc.gov.uk or phone 02380 285000

New Forest District Council
Appletree Court
Beaulieu Road
Lyndhurst
SO43 7PA

If you are still not satisfied, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The contact details are:

Information Commissioner: https://ico.org.uk/concerns

Telephone helpline: 0303 1231113

Email: caseworker@ico.org.uk