Revenues, housing benefit and council tax support

Assess your new and ongoing entitlement to housing benefit and/or council tax support.

• Ensure we award the correct rate of benefit or support.
• Build statistical information to inform DWP
• Administer and enforce Council Tax
• Administer and enforce National Non Domestic Rates
• Ensure that we meet our statutory duties

Legal obligation or public task under various UK laws including but not limited to:

• Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
• Social Security Administration Act 1992
• Housing Benefit Regulations 2006
• Housing Benefit (State Pension Credit) Regulations 2006
• Local Government Finance Act 1992 • Local Government Finance Act 1988 The processing of your information is necessary for compliance with the legal obligations contained in these Acts.

The personal data that we hold includes information such as;

• your households names
• address
• bank details
• dates of birth
• income
• capital
• tenancy details
• contact details

Your personal information will be treated as confidential, but it may be shared with other Council services in order to ensure our records are accurate and up-to-date and to improve the standard of the services we deliver.

We will only use your information in ways which are permitted by the General Data Protection Regulation and the UK Data Protection law. If we need to talk to other people and organisations regarding your information in the course of conducting our enquiries and assessing your entitlements we will obtain your consent. You will give this consent as part of the declaration that is signed when you complete an application form to make a claim.

We would not be able to assess your circumstances and offer the correct advice if this is withheld. 

• The Council has a duty to protect the public funds it administers and may use the information you have provided or share it with other bodies for the purpose of preventing and detecting fraud. This includes participation in the Cabinet Office National fraud Initiative.
• We may share your information for the lawful purpose of the prevention and detection of crime under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• Data will be uploaded securely to the Department for Work and Pensions for the purpose of analysis, reduction of fraud and error, compilation of national statistics and data matching.
• We may share your information with other teams in the Council such as Council Tax, Electoral Services, Waste Services, Housing Services and Corporate Investigations in order to provide our services, carry out public tasks, to keep our records up to date, for law enforcement and to protect public interests.
• We may share your information - but not personal, household or financial details - with your landlord.
• We will NOT use your personal data for marketing products or services
• We may share your data with Chorley Council as part of the shared services arrangements.
• There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by South Ribble Council. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Web site addresses. This information is used by South Ribble Council for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the South Ribble Council Web site.  This information may also be shared with other internal and external Government Departments including the Department for Works and Pensions for the prevention or detection of crime including fraud and money laundering.

You have the right to:

• Request a copy of your information ( known as a subject access request)
• Request rectification or erasure of your information
• Request a restriction on the processing of your information, and, object to processing of your information
• Complain to the information Commissioners office about the way the Council processes your information

If you require further information about the use of your data or would like to exercise any of the above rights please contact: the Data protection officer at South Ribble Borough council