This privacy notice explains what information the council needs in order to collect council tax and administer benefits.

This privacy notice should be read alongside the council’s main privacy notice.

In order to provide this service, it is necessary for the council to collect, store and process some personal data. 

Safeguards are in place to ensure that this data is kept secure and the privacy of individuals is protected.

Who is responsible for your information?

Chesterfield Borough Council is the data controller for the personal information collected.

How we collect your information

We collect information about you from the following sources:

• when you provide it to us – for example when you move into a new property, or apply for a Council Tax discount or benefits; if you provide us with information about somebody else, we will also collect some details about you
• we may receive some information about you from government departments like the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and/or HMRC
• information from data matching exercises, for example the National Fraud Initiative or data matching done against the electoral register
• we may have obtained your data from a third party, such as your landlord or letting agent, a former occupier, your University/college, solicitor, Land Registry, a medical practitioner or your support worker
• we may have obtained your data from an advice agency if you have asked them to contact us on your behalf
• we may obtain information about you from debt collection agencies and open source intelligence such as publicly accessible social media including Facebook
• if you pay by Direct Debit, we will receive information about your payments from BACS who process Direct Debits
  
• we sometimes need information about people other than the person who has applied for a benefit or service to work out what that person is entitled to. For example, where a person makes a claim for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support, we need information about other people who live in the same household to work out how much the person will be paid

How we store your information?

Your personal data will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. We have a data protection regime in place to ensure the secure processing of your personal information and using appropriate technical safeguards to keep your information secure.

How long will we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as it is required by us or other regulatory bodies to comply with legal and regulatory requirements or for other operational reasons. In most cases, this will be for a minimum of six years.

Live Data Testing

In some cases, live data may be used for testing new systems to verify functionality before transitioning to full use, but only as a last resort.

This testing is conducted in our standalone test environment to ensure that live data is processed accurately prior to implementation.

Rest assured, live test data is protected to the same standard as our live data and operational systems to comply with the Data Protection Act. 

Council Tax billing and collection

Purposes of processing your personal data

We need to process personal information in order to collect Council Tax and assess claims for discounts and exemptions.

Your personal data may be used by other service areas within the council to ensure our records are kept up-to-date and to enable the council to perform other statutory functions, including enforcement duties.

We are required to protect the public funds we administer. As such we may use your information for the prevention and detection of crime (including fraud) and to recover outstanding debts.

Health data may be requested in order to assess your eligibility for Council Tax discounts or exemptions. We also collect other categories of sensitive personal data in order to monitor and improve our services. You do not have to provide this information, and the data is stored separately to your Council Tax record. It will only be used anonymously.

Categories of data and lawful basis

Personal Data

In order to provide this service, we may need to process some or all of the following categories of personal information:

• contact details
• age and National Insurance Number
• information about your income and household make-up
• bank details and/or your payment history
• employment status and your employer’s name and address
• information about your liability for Council Tax
• details of any representatives acting on your behalf

Under data protection legislation, processing related to billing and recovery is permitted because we have a legal obligation to collect council tax.

If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, the associated processing is permitted because it forms part of the performance of a contract.

For other processing, we are permitted to use your information because we are fulfilling a statutory duty or because it is necessary for the performance of a public task.

Sensitive personal data

In order to provide this service, we may need to process some or all of the following categories of sensitive personal information:

• health data
• ethnicity and nationality
• sexual orientation
• religion
• some details about criminal convictions – for example if you are currently detained in prison

Under data protection legislation, we are permitted to use your information this way because it is for reasons of substantial public interest.

Legislation

Key pieces of legislation that create a legal obligation or statutory duty for us to process your information are listed below. Please note this list is not exhaustive.

• Local Government Finance Act 1992
• the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992
• Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 (requires us to share information with the cabinet office as part of the National Fraud Initiative)

Who we share your personal data with

We will share information with third parties in order to facilitate the prevention and detection of fraud and criminal activity, to protect public funds, or where we are required or enabled by law to do so. Examples include:

• the Department for Work and Pensions
• HM Revenues and Customs
• the Police
• health and social care organisations
• other bodies responsible for detecting or preventing fraud or auditing or administering public funds
• other local authorities and debt collection agencies

We are required to share data with the Cabinet Office as part of a national data matching exercise to prevent and detect fraud. Please see our National Fraud Initiative privacy notice, and the Cabinet Office privacy notice, for more details.

We are also required to share your data for statistical purposes – for example when it is requested by the Office for National Statistics.

If you pay your Council Tax by Direct Debit, your bank details and contact details will be passed to BACS Payment Schemes Limited (BACS) who manage the Direct Debit scheme. For more information see the council’s Direct Debit privacy notice.

Some personal data will be shared with Derby City Council as part of the Derbyshire-wide housing stock condition survey. The goal is to produce a clear picture of the state of housing stock across the county. The data that is shared will only be used to understand the current status and use of each property.

Your data may also be shared with other service areas within the council.

Housing Benefit and Council Tax support

Purposes of processing your personal data

We may need to process information about you, your partner and your children in order to assess your eligibility for Housing Benefit, Discretionary Housing Payment awards and local Council Tax support entitlement, or to help you apply for them. We also need your information in order to pay you the benefits you qualify for. Your information is also used to prevent and detect fraud and criminal activity.

We may also capture equalities monitoring information to help us review and improve our services. You do not have to supply this information, and it is processed separately and anonymously.

Categories of personal data and lawful basis

In order to provide this service, we may need to process some or all of the following categories of personal information about applicants, their partners and their children:

• contact details
• age
• National Insurance number,  tax and financial information
• payment card details

Under data protection legislation, we are permitted to use your information this way because we have a statutory duty to provide, manage and administer benefits.

Categories of sensitive personal data and lawful basis

In order to provide this service, we may need to process some health data about you.

Under data protection legislation, we are permitted to use your information this way because it is for reasons of substantial public interest.

Who we share your personal data with

We are legally obliged to share your information with:

• Department of Work and Pensions
• other government departments as required
• the Cabinet Office as part of a national data matching exercise to prevent and detect fraud. For more details, please see our National Fraud Initiative privacy notice, and the Cabinet Office privacy notice

Some personal data will be shared with Derby City Council as part of the Derbyshire-wide housing stock condition survey. The goal is to produce a clear picture of the state of housing stock across the county. The data that is shared will only be used to understand the current status and use of each property.

Further information

Please get in touch if you would like more information about how the council processes your personal data:

• contact the council's data protection officer