Benefits and your personal data

South Staffordshire District Council of The Council Offices, (telephone number 01902 696000) is what is known as the ‘controller' of your personal data.

Our ‘Data Protection Officer' is Lorraine Fowkes. She can be contacted here at the council offices.

As an organisation we process your personal data to enable us to register progress and determine your application and, where you qualify, provide financial support to you. We also review certain claims after an award of benefit has been made.

Our legal basis for processing your ordinary personal data will be either that it is necessary to do so to perform a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us. Where we process any special data such as information about mental or physical health we do so as it is necessary for us to perform our obligations under social protection (need to keep you housed) law.

Depending on your circumstances we may share your information with officers within the benefits team, other officers within the council, the pension service, Job Centre Plus, HMRC, the Valuation Office, other councils and your landlord [with your consent].

We will store your information for a period of 6 years after the date you cease to receive benefit or as long as there is a justifiable Council need to do so. If you do not qualify or do not provide information that we reasonably need from you then we will store your information for a period of 3 months after we close your claim. We will store your information on both our Live and Test Databases.

In brief If we process your personal data you may, depending on your circumstances have a right of access to it; to correct inaccurate information; to restrict our processing of it or to have your personal data erased.

The provision of information by you to us is a legal requirement. If you do not provide the information to us we may not be able to register progress and/ or determine your application.

Please speak to a member of the Revenue or Benefit Team or our Data Protection Officer in the first instance but if you have any concerns about the way we have processed your personal information then you can contact the Information Commissioner.