Privacy notice for Assessments and Payments

What do we use the information for?

The assessment and payments team collects, processes and holds your personal and financial information to provide our services effectively.

• To verify evidence regarding income and capital to calculate your ability to contribute towards the cost of your care
  
• To verify evidence regarding income and capital to calculate your eligibility for fostering / adoption payments
  
• To collect any contributions
  
• To consider any reconsiderations and appeals where you do not agree with your assessment
  
• To provide information for statutory government returns. 

We also use information to improve our services so that they are more appropriate to people’s requirements.  We recognise that your personal information is important to you, and we take our responsibilities for ensuring that we collect and manage it proportionately, correctly and safely very seriously.

What information do we hold and use?

We collect and process the following information:

• Personal information (including full name, date of birth, full residential address)
• Location data (including postcode and telephone number)
• Characteristics (such as ethnicity, sex, religion)
• The date you wish to claim from and what you wish to claim for
• Contact/ appointee details (including full name, full residential address)
• Information relating to household income (including state benefits)
• Details of any second properties and rent received, if applicable
• Details of any expenses
• Information relating to any care you receive and who provides it.

On what grounds do we use the information?

The assessments and payments team collect and lawfully process your personal information under the following:  

• Care Act 2014
• Charging for Residential Accommodation Guide (CRAG)

• GDPR Article 6(1)(a) – the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes
• GDPR Article 6(1)(b) – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract
• GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligation to which the East Riding of Yorkshire Council is subject
• GDPR Article 6(1)(d) – processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person.

• GDPR Article 9(2)(a) - the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes, except where Union or Member State law provide that the prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 may not be lifted by the data subject
• GDPR Article 9(2)(c) - processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent
• GDPR Article9(2)(g) processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, 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 and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject 
• GDPR Article9(2)(h) - processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of Union or Member State law or pursuant to contract with a health professional and subject to the conditions and safeguards referred to in paragraph 3.

How do we collect this information?

We may collect information in the following ways:

• Financial Assessment forms
• Paper, electronic or online forms
• Email
• Website
• Telephone 
• Face to face, with one of our employees, or one of our partners
• Direct from the Department for Work and Pensions
• via the national ‘Tell Us Once’ Scheme.

Who do we share your information with?

We may disclose your information to others, but only where this is necessary either to comply with our legal obligations or as permitted by Data Protection legislation. We may share it with other public service bodies including the police, external organisation who the council contracts with to administer public funds, and other local authorities. 

The reasons why we may share your data with other public bodies are as follows:

• To protect vulnerable adults who may be at risk of harm or abuse;
• To improve our understanding of your needs to enable us to inform you of other relevant safeguarding services
• To protect public funds
• To monitor and improve our performance and delivery of services
• To recover debts owed to the council
• For the prevention and or detection of crime
• Where necessary to protect individuals from the risk of harm or injury
• Where otherwise permitted under the General Data Protection legislation.

We will only disclose your sensitive or confidential information, such as medical details to a third party, if we are legally required to do so, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put you or someone else at risk of harm.

We will not pass your personal information to external organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior expressed consent.

To enable the assessments and payments team to carry out their functions, they use a housing system called ActiveH which is supplied by MIS-Active Management Systems Limited.

MIS-Active Management Systems Limited (external website)

How long do we store it and is it secure?

The assessments and payments team has retention schedules in place to ensure that information is only held for as long as it is needed. We will not keep your information for longer than is required to by law.  Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the council’s Records Management and Data Quality Policy. The council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected, and accessed only by staff directly involved in your case.  

For information on how long your information will be held visit the retention page. 

What rights do you have?

The rights that you have depend upon the grounds on which we collected your information. All of the rights you could have are outlined on the data protection rights page.

In most cases, people who have been involved with the assessments and payments team will have the following rights:

• The right to access – you are entitled to see the information the service holds about you
• The right to rectification – we will amend the information accordingly, if any information that the service holds about you is incorrect
• The right to restrict processing – you may wish to limit how we use your data 
• The right to object – in addition to the right to limit the use of your data, you also have a right to object to the use of you data for certain actions.

To exercise any of your above rights, please visit the data protection rights page for more information. 

Where can I find out more?

If you would like to know more about how the council uses information, your rights or have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance; contact details are available on the general privacy information page. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest and they handle public concerns regarding organisations information rights practices.  

Information Commissioner’s Office (external website)

When was this privacy notice last updated?

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect any changes in our services, feedback from customers, and to comply with any changes in the law. This privacy notice was last updated on 19 April 2021.