Who we are
We are a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Our headquarters are at Scottish Borders Council, Newtown St Boswells, TD6 0SA. You can contact us by phone 0300 100 1800 or email CustomerAdvice@scotborders.gov.uk.
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted using the details above or by emailing dataprotection@scotborders.gov.uk
How we will use your information
We will use the information you provide to contact you about your Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction.
Who we may share your information with
Your information will be accessed our staff who need to do so in order to provide the service described above. We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds so details will be checked internally for fraud prevention and verification purposes and may be shared with other public bodies for the same purpose.
Personal data provided for services administered and/or provided by us may be shared with, or obtained from the following organisations (in addition to any other disclosure required by a Court of Law or in response to a valid request by, normally, a law enforcement agency):
- our staff employed to administer Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support and Discretionary Housing Payment
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- Her Majesty’s Revenues and Customs (HMRC)
- Cabinet Office
- an external company who are paid to administer Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction on behalf of the local authority (such as Civica on Demand)
- external companies who deliver services to enable your Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction, Discretionary Housing Payment claim to be processed, for example by supplying an online claim form service
- Police
- Sherriff Officer (of persons required to repay an overpayment)
- employers (of persons required to repay an overpayment)
- other Council Services
- other local authorities
Your information may also be shared and analysed internally in order to provide management information, inform service delivery reform and similar purposes to meet our duty to achieve best value and continuous service improvement.
In general we do not transfer personal data outside either the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) and on the rare occasions when we do we will inform you. We will only transfer data outside the UK and the EEA when it is satisfied that the party which will handle the data and the country it is processing it in will provide adequate safeguards for personal privacy.
How long do we keep your information for?
We will keep your contact details without limit of time, until you inform us that the details have changed.
Your Rights
You have the right to request access to any personal data held about you by us. You can also request that we restrict the use of your information or even object to any further processing. You can do this by contacting our Data Protection Officer. We will respond to your request within 30 calendar days.
For more information on your rights visit our website or if you would like a hard copy of this information, please contact us.
How to raise a complaint
We aim to directly resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information. If your complaint is about how we have handled your personal information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer by email dataprotection@scotborders.gov.uk or phone 0300 100 1800.
However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint about data protection matters with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who can be contacted by:
- post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
- phone: 0303 123 1113
- website
If your complaint is not about a data protection matter you can find details on how to make a complaint.