Housing benefit and council tax reduction privacy notice

Who we are and what we do

London Borough of Redbridge, Housing and Council Tax Reduction Section, Revenues, Benefits and Transactional Centre, PO Box 1354, Lynton House, 255-259 High Road, Ilford IG1 1NN

Email: housing.benefits@redbridge.gov.uk
Phone: 020 8708 5690

Why we need your information and how we use it

The information we collect and the information provided to us by the Department for Work and Pensions is required for the calculation of your Housing Benefit and or Council Tax Reduction claim.

We use the information in order to administer Housing Benefit under the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 and associated Regulations.

We use the information in order to administer our Council Tax Reduction scheme under S13A and Schedule 1a of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 and associated Regulations.
We will use the information to make you liable (if appropriate) for Council Tax at your address.

We may use your information to help collect debts like Council Tax.

We may use the information held to assist in the recovery of Housing Benefit Overpayments.

We have a duty to protect public funds we administer, and may use information held about you for all lawful purposes, including and not limited to the prevention and detection of fraud, matching council tax data with electoral registration records and protecting public funds in investigating misuse of public money.

In order to calculate Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction we collect information about, you, your partner, your children and other adults that live in your household.

 

What type of information is collected from you

In order to administer our services we collect the following information from you:

• name
• address
• date of birth
• national insurance number
• earned income
• benefits and allowances
• bank accounts 
• savings
• investments
• property ownership
• rent paid
• landlord details
• immigration details

we may also collect information about your partner, your children and other adults that live in your household.

 

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

By law we must give out some information if we are asked - for example by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or HM Revenue & Customs.

We are required by law to participate in National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data matching exercises and housing benefit and council tax reduction information may be provided to the Cabinet Office for NFI purposes and will be used for cross-system and cross-authority comparison for the prevention and detection of fraud.

We will also use the information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties. It will make any disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or auditing/ administering public funds. We may share the details with other organisations that handle public funds and assist in the processing of other benefits.

We do not contact your landlord about your claim, but if you get Housing Benefit paid direct to a landlord, we just give those details about payment dates and amounts to your landlord.

If you have agreed above that we can give information about the progress of your claim to your landlord, we can tell them where your claim is up to if they ask.

We may also ask you to fill in a claim form to make a fresh statement of your circumstances. If we do this, we may tell your landlord too.

If you previously didn't agree to us sharing information about the progress of your claim with your landlord, but you change your mind after you have sent us your claim sheet, please tell us in writing that you now agree to share that information

If you are a private tenant, we usually have to give the Valuation Office Agency Rent Service details about your home and rent.

We can share information collected as part of your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction applications with other departments in the Council, other Local Authorities the Department for Work and Pensions and, in some circumstances, your landlord and other organisations.

The information we hold, including details of any social security benefits you may get, can only be shared for the following reasons:

To help with an application for another council service - If you apply for one or more of the following;

• a Blue badge
• a Disabled Facilities Grant
• a Discretionary Housing Payment
• help with non-statutory assistance (better known as supporting people services)
• residential care
• domiciliary care - such as day care, home helps and meals.

The information held by the council as part of your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction application can be shared with and used by other council services to:

• help decide whether you qualify for help and how much, if anything, you should pay
• help identify and support people who are at risk of becoming homeless
• help identify families who may benefit from the Troubled Families Programme
• help people living in a Council or Housing Association property and who will be affected by the Benefit Cap and/or Under Occupation in the Social sector (by telling another part of the Council or your landlord, they will be able to advise you what you should do next and provide you with any assistance they can).

How long we keep your information

We retain your information for six years after the last payment on the claim. If a claim has an outstanding overpayment, we will retain your information for six years after full repayment of the overpayment.

If the claim has an active fraud investigation, we will retain all information until 6 years after the end of the fraud investigation and conclusion of court action.

Marketing and E-Newsletters

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Business Intelligence, Profiling and Automated-Decision making

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice

Protecting your information

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice

How you can access, update, or correct your information

The Data Protection law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'. 

The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. We are working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at housing.benefits@redbridge.gov.uk or write to us at:

London Borough of Redbridge
Housing and Council Tax Reduction Section
Revenues, Benefits and Transactional Centre
PO Box 1354, Lynton House
255-259 High Road
Ilford IG1 1NN

Email: housing.benefits@redbridge.gov.uk

Tel: 020 8708 5690

Your information choice and rights

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Information Commissioner’s Office

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.