Privacy notice: Council Tax and benefits

1. Introduction

This Privacy Notice explains types of personal information we may collect about you when you use South Tyneside Council's Revenues and Benefits on-line services, available at Council Tax and Benefits. It also explains how we will store and handle that information, as well as keep it safe and secure.

We will keep our privacy notice under regular review and will advise you of any updates on our website.

This Notice was last reviewed in November 2024.

2. Who we are

For the purposes of Data Protection legislation, South Tyneside Council is the Data Controller.

As Data Controller we must:

use your personal information fairly and lawfully
only use your personal information for the purposes it has been provided for, unless required to by law
only collect as much personal information as needed for the services you require
keep your personal information accurate and up to date
only keep your information for as long as necessary
use your personal information in accordance with your rights
keep your personal information safe and secure
not transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area unless adequate levels of protection are in place

3. What type of personal information do we collect?

We may collect the following types of personal information:

Personal details such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses
Reference numbers and account details (for example, Council Tax account number, housing benefit/council tax support reference number)
National insurance numbers
Employment details
Details of benefits you claim
Financial and banking details
Personal details of other people who live in your household
Information about online Council tax and Benefits services you request from the Council

4. How do we collect personal information?

We collect your personal information when you communicate with the Revenues And Benefits teams via telephone, email, forms or register for an online account and / or request services at Council Tax and Benefits.

Department for Works and Pensions (DWP), His Majesty's Revenues and Custom (HMRC) and the Home Office also share data with the Local Authority Revenues and Benefits Team.

5. Why do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information so we can contact you about the requests you have made, to assess your request and to provide you with services that you have requested, for example a claim for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support.

We also use your information for the administration of Council Tax. This includes the billing, collection and recovery of Council Tax in accordance with:

The Local Government Finance Act 1992
The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992

Information collected for Housing Benefit and Local Council Tax Support can also be used for the following:

to make you liable (if appropriate) for Council Tax at your address
to help collect Council Tax
to assist in the recovery of Housing Benefit overpayments
to contact you to promote take up of other benefits including but not limited to Pension Credit, Universal Credit, Discretionary Housing Payments.

6. Who might we share your personal information with?

In accordance with Data Protection Law, South Tyneside Council may share information with other Council Services or public organisations if required by Law to do so, including the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenue & Customs.

They may check information you have provided, or information about you that someone else has provided, with other information they hold.

We may also get information about you from other organisations, or give information to them to:

make sure the information is accurate;
prevent or detect crime; and
protect public funds

These other organisations include government departments, other local authorities and private organisations such as banks.

7. How long will we keep your personal information?

We will only keep your personal information for as long as necessary. The Council is required to hold certain types of information for a statutory period.

At the end of the retention period, or the life of a particular record, it will be reviewed and deleted, unless there is any special reason for keeping it.

We currently keep data for Council taxpayers and Council Tax Support / Housing Benefit claimants back to the start of Council Tax in 1993. This is because there has yet to be a revaluation of the current valuation bands so it possible for an adjustment to be required back to 1993.

8. What is our legal basis for using your personal information?

To use your personal information there must be a lawful basis to do this, such as, through a contract, performing a public task or where there is a legal obligation. Most of the Council's services will be processed as a public task set out in Article 6 (1) (e) and 9(2)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller
processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law

The GDPR sets a high standard for consent to use people's information. Consent requires a positive opt-in. Pre-ticked boxes or any other consent method by default is no longer allowed.

Whilst the majority of information you provide to us is a mandatory requirement for us to provide services to you, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with data protection legislation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain information to us or if you have a choice about whether you need to provide the information and how your data is used. However, if you choose not to share your personal data with us in these circumstances, this may affect our ability to improve our services and our service offer to you as a customer.

If consent is the only legal basis used to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time. Consent can be withdrawn online, by email, telephone or face-to-face.

9. Correspondence

Email correspondence

If you have provided an email address, we may contact you by email you to:

verify your email address and create your online account
confirm that you have successfully created an account
confirm when you have successfully requested a service
ask you for further information about your requests
update you on the progress of your requests
help you to reset your password

Phone correspondence

If you have provided a phone number, we may contact you by phone to:

ask for further information about your requests
update you on the progress of your requests

Mail correspondence

If you have provided an address, we may contact you by mail to deliver the service that you have requested, for example, to send you something that you have requested in the post.

10. How do we keep your personal information secure?

We recognise the professional responsibility we have to safeguard the information of individuals. The security of your personal information is important to us and we follow a range of security policies and procedures to ensure that access to, and use of your information is controlled and appropriate.

Some example of our security measures include:

Controlling access to Council systems and networks preventing any unauthorised access to your personal information
Using encryption methods such as passwords so that only people with specific access rights can view it
Our staff are regularly trained in data protection to make them aware of their responsibilities when using personal information and how and when to report if something goes wrong
We regularly test our technology and working practices to keep up to date on the latest security update

11. Is your personal information used overseas?

The Council will not process your personal information relating to the on-line Council Tax and Benefits services outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

12. What are your rights?

Your individual rights are set out in law. Subject to some legal exemptions, you have the following rights:

Right to be informed
Right of access
Right to rectification
Right to erasure
Right to restrict processing
Right to data portability
Right to object
Right in related to automated decision making and profiling

13. Automated decision making

If you submit an online claim for Housing Benefit / Council Tax Support, for Council Tax Services or we receive information from DWP, HMRC or Home Office, we may process this information using an automated decision-making process. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing and can ask for any automated decision made about you to be reviewed by an individual.

14. Testing

Live data may be used in a test environment when testing system upgrades.

15. Contact us

If you would like to exercise your rights in relation to your personal information, or you feel that something has gone wrong with your personal information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) in either of the following ways:

By email: data.protection@southtyneside.gov.uk

By telephone: 0191 424 6539

In writing:

South Tyneside Council
Information Governance
Town Hall and Civic Offices
South Shields
NE33 2RL

If you feel that the Council has not handled your information correctly you can contact the Data Protection Officer at the above contact details or the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the Government's Independent Body responsible for overseeing data protection. In most cases the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the Council's internal procedures.

The ICO's contact details are as follows: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF. More information can be found on the ICO's website at www.ico.org.uk.