Revenues and Processing privacy notice

All personal information is held and processed by East Ayrshire Council as Data Controllers in accordance with data protection law.

For information on the role of the Data Controller, Data Protection Officer and contact details for the Council, please refer to our Privacy Statement.

We will collect information about you, and any partner or dependants such as:

• your name
• address
• telephone number
• email address
• National Insurance number
• date of birth
• income, allowances, savings and investments
• other relevant information needed to process a claim, such as your bank details or your landlord details

We will use this information to process claims for:

• Housing Benefit
• Council Tax Reduction
• Discretionary Housing Payment
• Scottish Welfare Fund
• clothing grants, school meals
• Council Tax discounts, exemptions and payments

We will check some of the information with other sources to ensure the information provided is accurate.

If this information is not provided it may affect our ability to process a claim or enquiry.

The lawful basis for processing personal data is set out in data protection legislation. In this case the lawful basis for processing individuals’ data are:

• legal obligation - the processing is necessary for the Council to comply with the law
• public task - the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law

The information is required by us in order to carry out its duties under the Local Government Finance Act 2012 and associated Regulations including the following:

• Social Security Administration Act 1992 and any subsequent amendments
• Education (Scotland) Act 1980 and any subsequent amendments
• Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2012 and any subsequent amendments
• Welfare Funds (Scotland) Act 2015 and any subsequent amendments

Data Protection legislation defines Special Category Data as data relating to the processing of personal data regarding:

• racial or ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• processing of
  • genetic data
  • biometric data
  • data concerning health
  • data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation

We will have a requirement to process some types of Special Category Data and in particular:

• racial or ethnic origin information for monitoring purposes
• health information for housing benefit, council tax reduction and Scottish Welfare Fund claims

Lawful basis for processing Special Category Data

The processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. This is on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to:

• the aim pursued
• respect the essence of the right to data protection
• provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject

To enable the Council to administer benefits, grants and Council Tax we may share information under our legal obligations with partner organisations including:

• The Department for Work and Pensions and other government departments
• Health & Social Care Organisations such as NHS Ayrshire & Arran and East Ayrshire Health & Social Care Partnership
• Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for Scotland (National Records of Scotland) 
• Police Scotland and other criminal investigation agencies
• Social care providers
• Scottish Government
• The Care Inspectorate
• Mental Welfare Commission
• Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration
• Office of the Public Guardian 
• Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
• Registered social landlords
• The (UK) Information Commissioner
• External regulators

We will also make any disclosures required by law and may also share information with other bodies responsible for:

• detecting or preventing fraud, or
• auditing and administering public funds

National fraud initiative

The Council is required by law to participate in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data matching exercises and 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 only keep your information for the minimum period necessary.

After this time, information is deleted/destroyed in accordance with our Council approved Retention Schedule (PDF 814 KB) which explains how long we keep information for.

It is important that we hold accurate and up-to-date information.

If any details have changed, or change in the future, then individuals should ensure that they inform Revenues and Processing as soon as possible so that they can update their records.

Under data protection legislation, individuals have the right to request access to information about them that the Council holds.

Individuals also have the right to:

• object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing damage or distress
• prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
• object to decisions being taken by automated means
• in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed
• in certain circumstances, transfer their data to another organisation (data portability)

How to contact us

Individuals can contact us:

• regarding their data protection rights and the processing of their data
• if they have a concern about the way the Council is collecting or using their personal data

They should raise their concern with our Data Protection Officer in the first instance. Contact details can be found on our Privacy Statement.