Privacy Notices - Financial assessments for special guardianship, adoption and child arrangement order allowances Privacy Notice

You need to be aware of this Privacy Notice if you are making an application for a financial assessment for the above.

A Privacy Notice is a statement issued by an organisation which explains how personal and confidential data about individuals is collected, used and shared.

Swindon Borough Council will act as a “Data Controller” for any personal data that you provide to us.  We will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with our Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 18) and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

To find out more about Swindon Borough Council’s data protection policies please contact our Data Protection Officer. dataprotection@swindon.gov.uk or in writing to Data Protection Officer, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 2JH.

Please note that not providing your personal data may lead to us being unable to process a financial assessment to determine any allowance you may be entitled to and payment cannot therefore be made.
 

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”).

The type of data we will need to collect in order to financially assess any entitlement you may have to an allowance typically includes following:

• Your personal details, including name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number and contact details, for example, telephone numbers and email address
• Your partner’s details, including name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and contact details, for example, telephone numbers and email address
• Details of any other members of your household including name, relationship and National Insurance Number
• Household income, including your benefits, occupational pensions and earnings
• Details of any Capital, including investments, for example, bonds and shares, and savings, for example, bank and building society accounts held by members of your household
• Details of any property in which you or members of your household have a beneficial interest
• Details of any properties you have sold or transferred
• Details of any ongoing expenditure for the household

We will also require documentary evidence such as bank statements and benefit notification letters to confirm the financial information supplied on the application form.
 

We comply with our obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We will need to use some information about you to:

• calculate any entitlement applicants may have to an allowance
• deliver any other services and support to you
• manage those services we provide to you
• train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services
• help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your services
• ensure the prevention and detection of fraud and other crimes
• ensure the provision of statistical analysis of services

It is necessary to allow us to perform our statutory duties and to comply with our obligations under the Children Act 1989 (amended 2002), Specials Guardianship Regulations 2005 (amended 2016), Adoption Act 2002 and to comply with Swindon Borough Council Policy and Procedure.

For the purpose of processing and validating your financial assessment we may pass information to other agencies or organisations, such as the Department for Works and Pensions and departments within the Council, such as Children’s Social Care, Housing Benefit and Council Tax, in order to provide efficient services and ensure that benefit and local tax is correctly assessed.

We take the security of your personal information seriously and try to ensure that the necessary controls are in place to ensure that your personal data (either on paper or electronically) is held in a secure manner and is only accessed by those who have a right to see it.

Your personal information will be retained for period of 6 financial years, plus the current financial year, unless there are any outstanding matters after this date.

Under the Data Protection Act you can request the following:

• You can ask for access to the information we hold on you
• You can ask to change information you think is inaccurate
• You can ask to delete information in some circumstances
• You can ask us to limit what we use your personal data for

Should you wish to exercise any of the above, you should contact the Data Protection Officer.
 

In the event that you wish to complain about the way that your personal data has been handled by Swindon Borough Council, you should write to the Data Protection Officer and clearly outline your case. Your complaint will then be investigated in accordance with our customer complaint procedure.

If you remain dissatisfied with the way your personal data has been handled, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ICO.org.uk. You may refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose contact details are below:         

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

If you do not provide the data requested in the financial assessment application form, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all and you may not receive any allowance you may otherwise be entitled to.
 

A yearly audit will take place on personal data to ensure that we remain legally compliant in accordance with current data protection legislation.

You are viewing the Privacy Notice for financial assessments for special guardianship, adoption and child arrangement order allowances.

Read the main Privacy Notice