Household support fund privacy notice

1 Council Contact Details

1.1 North Northants Council
Registered Office:
Sheerness House
41 Meadow Road
Kettering
NN16 8TL

1.2 In September 2021, the Government announced that vulnerable households in England will be able to access the Household Support Fund. The fund provides help for households facing challenges with the cost of living. The fund has been extended to 31 March 2024.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has allocated Household Support Fund money to local authorities in England. Local authorities administer the fund on behalf of the Government to help vulnerable households access support to help with the rising costs of energy, food, water and other related essentials.

NNC is the data controller for the purposes of assessing eligibility, administering and making payments from its Household Support Fund allocation that it received from DWP.

1.3 The Household Support Fund team can be contacted at [email protected].

2. Information that we hold

2.1 North Northamptonshire Holiday Voucher Scheme. No application is needed for this scheme and no information is being collected for this scheme.

2.2 For the North Northamptonshire Household Support Fund Financial Aid the application is via an online form. An application can be completed by professionals, carers, attorneys, and other individuals. When someone applies for assistance we currently collect and process the following information:

Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone numbers
How many children live in your household and their ages
Whether any adults of pensionable age live in your household
Whether anyone in your household is registered as disabled
Bank account details including Bank Account Name, Number and Sort Code for BACS payments to be processed
Financial Information for all household members. Including proof of any benefit entitlements e.g. Universal Credit, PIP, ESA and proof of your financial situation e.g. bank statement, savings account
The personal details of an official person (a referee) that has agreed to support your application including their name, how you know them, their telephone number and their email address.
National Insurance numbers of all household members over 16 years of age
Rights to work within the United Kingdom for all household members
Residential Status
Employment data
Medical Information (including details of those in care / care leavers) of all household members
Proof of ID:
- Copies of utility bills
- Driving Licence
- Passport
- Biometric Residence Permit - formerly known as identity card
- HM Forces Identity Card or ID card carrying the PASS accreditation logo
- Where the main applicant is unable to provide photographic ID, they will need to provide 2 of the following:
- full birth certificate
- work permit or residency permit
- adoption certificate
- marriage or civil partner certificate
- divorce, dissolution, or annulment papers
- gender recognition certificate
- deed poll certificate
- firearms certificate or licence
- police registration document
- certificate of employment in the HM Forces
- benefit statement, book or card or original notification letter from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) confirming the legal right to benefit for example, child allowance, pension dated within the last 3 months
- a document from a local or central government authority or local authority giving entitlement such as Employment services, Job centre, Social Security services (UK and Channel Islands) dated within the last 3 months
- most recent tax notification from HM Revenue and Customs (i.e., tax assessment, statement of account, notice of coding, P45 or P60 (UK and Chanel Islands) dated within the last 3 months.

2.3 Find further information on the Household Support Fund page.

3. How the information is obtained

3.1 Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you when you submit your online application to the Household Support Fund. If relevant, you must seek permission from your referee to provide the details we require as part of your application. We may contact your referee to ask them to confirm your personal circumstances and that you are likely to be a household in need of support.

3.2 We also receive personal information indirectly, from the Local Authority and Central Government data in the assessment of financial aid applications.

3.3 There are several reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. Generally, we collect and use personal information where:

It is necessary to meet our legal obligations
You have requested a service from us
It is required for the defence of legal cases
You, or your legal representative, have given us your consent
It is necessary for law enforcement reasons and to prevent and detect fraud or crime

3.4 Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) we are relying on Article 6(1) (e) to process personal information, as it is a task in the public interest. This means that it has a basis in the law and is often a statutory duty. We have also been given guidance by the Government (GOV.UK website) which requires us to deliver the Household Support Fund. We also have duties under the Care Act 2014, Children’s Act 2004, and Education Act 1996.

Where applicants tell us about their medical situation or provide details about their health. The UK GDPR lawful basis is Article 9 (a) – Explicit consent.

4. What we do with the information

4.1 We use the information that you have given us to assess applications for financial aid. The Fund is to provide crisis support to vulnerable households in most need of support to help with significantly rising living costs.

If you apply, we will need to process your personal data to assess whether you are eligible to receive financial support, and if so to provide to process vouchers and payments for successful applications.

We may need to see copies of any benefit entitlements you receive or a copy of a recent bank statement to validate your application. We may need to carry out checks with your referee for verification purposes in validating your application.

4.2 For audit and monitoring purposes, we will record the number and type of awards made from the Household Support Fund. We will also report on how the Household Support Fund has been spent to North Northamptonshire Councillors. This monitoring does not include any personal data.

The DWP requires local authorities to report on how the Household support Fund is spent using its Management Information (MI) Return Form. They do not require local authorities to provide any personal data.

We also use the information to review and evaluate the scheme. We will do this by using anonymised information and will not identify anyone.

4.3 We may share this information with appointed partners in the provision of payments, vouchers and advice to eligible households for the fund.

We will not disclose any personal information to any other third parties unless required to do so by law or where it is appropriate to support our duty to protect public funds and / or detect and prevent fraud or other criminal activity or safeguarding requirements.

We will not share your information with third parties for commercial or marketing purposes.

Other council services
registered charities and voluntary organisations
schools
food banks
general practitioners
organisations providing support in particular circumstances (such as but not limited to “baby banks”)

4.4 We do not use automated decision making for equalities processing. Automated decision-making is where decisions are made about you without any human influence on the outcome. These may affect your legal rights or have an impact on your circumstances, behaviour, or choices.

4.5 There is no profiling undertaken in relation to equalities processing. Profiling is where you analyse parts of an individual’s personality, behaviour, interests, and habits to identify their preferences, make predictions or decisions about them.

5. How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use

5.1 We will only keep your personal data for as long as it is needed to process your application under the Household Support Fund framework:

for payment purposes;
to provide monitoring data; and
for audit purposes.

5.2 The Household Support Fund scheme will run until the funds are spent. We may need to retain a copy of your data after this date for legal reasons, including audit purposes, but will no longer be actively processing your data.

Records relating to an award will be kept for 6 years plus the current financial year and will then be securely deleted in line with the council’s retention schedules. Request a copy of the retention schedule.

6. How we store your information

6.1 Your information is securely stored on the council’s systems, in which the servers are UK based.

7. Your data protection rights

7.1 The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. Please see section 15 of the council’s Privacy Policy for further information.

7.2 Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

7.3 The right to withdraw consent - You can ask that we no longer use your details for this processing. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact the Data Protection Officer detailed in section 8.1 below.

8. Who to contact

8.1 If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer.

8.2 If you are still dissatisfied once you have contacted the Data Protection Officer, you have the right to complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:

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

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

9. Changes to this privacy notice

9.1 Privacy notices are live documents, which will be updated or revised in line with legislation.

9.2 This privacy notice was published on 20 July 2023.

Last updated 29 August 2023