Council Tax Reduction

1. The purpose for which we use your personal data

The information we collect about you will be used for the following purposes:

• Calculate the amount of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction you may be entitled to
• Deal with applications and payments of Discretionary Housing Payment
• Fraud investigation
• Recovering overpayments
• Providing Welfare Support

To assist you with you paying for your housing needs.

The legal basis for the processing is to comply with our legal obligations under the following:

• The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006
• The Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006
• The Council Tax Reduction Schemes and Prescribed Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2013
• The Council Tax Reduction Schemes and Prescribed Requirements (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2017
• The Social Security Amendment (Discretionary Housing Payments) Regulations 2001

You are obliged by law to let us know of any changes that might affect your liability to pay Council Tax. Penalties can be imposed for failing to:

• notify the Council within 21 days, without reasonable excuse, on any matter which affects entitlement to a Council Tax discount
• notify the Council within 21 days, without reasonable excuse, on any matter which affects entitlement to a Council Tax exemption
• supply us with the relevant information we request within 21 days in order to establish Council Tax liability
• supply relevant information we ask for after the Court issues a Liability Order. Failing to provide this information could lead to a criminal prosecution and a fine

2. What type of information do we use?

We collect the following types of personal data about you to deliver this service, depending on your circumstances:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Unique reference number
• National Insurance Number
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Bank/payment details
• Your family composition
• Your social circumstances
• Your financial circumstances
• Employment and education details
• Your housing needs
• Images/photographs
• Vehicle registration number
• Information about your health
• Your nationality

We collect and use information about your health because it is necessary for the purpose of exercising functions under the legislation referred to above.  We process information about criminal convictions for reasons of substantial public interest, also on the basis of this legislation.

3. Do we use information received from other sources?

To provide this service, we collect information directly from you but also receive information from the following sources:

• Department for Work & Pensions
• HM Revenues & Customs
• Landlords
• Employers
• The Council’s Housing Services
• The Council’s Council Tax section
• Adult Social Care and Children’s Services
• Prison Service
• Enforcement Agents

The following types of personal data may be obtained, depending on your circumstances:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Unique reference number
• National Insurance Number
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Bank/payment details
• Your family composition
• Your social circumstances
• Your financial circumstances
• Employment and education details
• Your housing needs
• Images/photographs
• Vehicle registration number
• Information about your health
• Your nationality

4. Transferring your information abroad

We use Microsoft Office 365 to process all of our emails under the terms of a strict agreement, which safeguards your information. This personal data is hosted on servers outside the UK, but only in EU countries which are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation.

We don’t transfer any other information about you outside of the UK.

5. Who has access to your information?

The following have access to your information:

• Department for Work & Pensions
• National Fraud Initiative
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Our software supplier
• Wales Audit Office
• Employers
• Building Control & Planning Services, Animal Health, our Environment department and Consumer & Business Affairs, when these services need to establish the names of occupiers of properties
• We use a company to verify eligibility for single persons and other discounts
• We use a company to assist with data analysis for welfare support purposes

We may also share your information with the following Council services, depending on your circumstances:

• Housing Services
• Council Tax
• Customer Services
• Fairer Charging
• Fraud investigation
• Electoral Registration
• Home Improvements
• School Administration
• Free School Meals
• Internal Audit
• National Non Domestic (Business) Rates

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

• Where the Council is required to provide the information by law
• Where disclosing the information is required to prevent or detect a crime
• Where disclosure is in the vital interests of the person concerned

6. How long we will keep your information

We will keep your information for as long as you are eligible for Housing Benefit payments and for 7 years from the end of the year your eligibility ceases.  This is in accordance with the Council’s Retention Guidelines.

7. Your Data Protection rights

You have the right to:

• Obtain access to the personal data that Carmarthenshire Council is processing about you
• Have any inaccurate or incomplete information rectified (corrected)
• Withdraw your consent to processing, where this is the only basis for the processing
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the independent body in the UK which protects information rights

In some circumstances, you may have the right to:

• Object to the processing of your personal information
• The erasure of your personal data
• Restrict the processing of your personal information
• Data portability

8. Contact details

For more information regarding this privacy notice and your rights, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
Carmarthenshire County Council
County Hall
Carmarthen
SA31 1JP

Email: dataprotection@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

Contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office along with further guidance on Data Protection legislation can be found on the ICO website .