Privacy notices Housing benefit and Council Tax Support privacy notice

Updated: 24 August 2026

Contents

The type of personal information we collect

We currently collect and process the following information:

  • surname, forename and title
  • date of birth
  • address and postcode
  • previous address and postcode
  • email
  • phone number
  • marital status
  • National Insurance number
  • your nationality and whether you have lived in the UK for the last 2 years
  • financial details including your income and any bank accounts you have
  • student details
  • information about where you live including tenancy details, rent charged, type of property you live in and your landlord details

We also collect the following, which is, or could include, special category information:

  • whether you have a disability
  • details of all people who live in your household including their gender, relationship to you and your partner, and proof of their personal circumstances

How we get the personal information and why we have it

Information is collected from you as the service user by:

  • online forms
  • hard copy documents
  • email
  • telephone
  • face to face discussion

Information may also be collected from a representative acting on your behalf.

Information may also be collected from data that you supplied to:

  • The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
  • HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
  • 'Tell Us Once' service
  • Home Office information relating to immigration status, residency or entitlement, where permitted by law
  • DWP data-sharing services and systems, including: 
    • Searchlight
    • Verification of Earnings and Pensions (VEP)
    • Automated Transfer to Local Authority Systems (ATLAS)
    • Transfer Your File (TYF)
    • Universal Credit Data Share (UCDS)
    • Local Council Tax Reduction files
    • Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE)
    • Housing Benefit Debt Service (HBDS)

We may obtain information about you and members of your household from DWP through a range of data-sharing services and systems used to: 

  • administer benefits
  • reduce fraud and error
  • support benefit take-up activities
  • provide wider welfare support

Information to help us assess your entitlement could come from:

  • adult social care
  • Council Tax
  • electoral services
  • fraud teams
  • children’s services
  • housing services
  • other councils that you have lived in or are moving to
  • Department for Work and Pensions
  • HMRC pensions and earnings data from the DWP - this may include information for other people who live in the same household (information from HMRC may also be used to assist in housing benefit debt recovery)

The welfare service collects personal data to process applications for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support and related welfare support. 

We may use information received from DWP, HMRC, the Home Office and other public authorities to: 

  • assess entitlement
  • verify information supplied in support of claims
  • identify residents who may be entitled to financial assistance they are not currently claiming
  • prevent and detect fraud and error
  • recover debts owed to the council or DWP where permitted by law
  • meet statutory reporting requirements

We may also use information to administer: 

  • Local Welfare Provision
  • the Crisis and Resilience Fund
  • emergency financial assistance
  • discretionary welfare schemes
  • hardship schemes
  • associated support services

We may use information relating to benefit entitlement to identify residents who may qualify for social tariffs, discounted utility schemes or other financial support offered by water, energy or other public service providers. Information will only be shared where there is a lawful basis to do so.

This could include help with applications for these services:

  • discretionary housing payment
  • Council Tax hardship payment
  • blue badge
  • disabled facilities grant
  • help with supporting people services
  • residential care
  • domiciliary care - such as day care, home helps and meals
  • free school meals
  • food support and other support programmes

Where necessary and appropriate we also use the information to:

  • improve the service we deliver 
  • identify and support people who are at risk of becoming homeless
  • assess liability for Council Tax or to help in the recovery of unpaid Council Tax or housing benefit overpayments
  • identify households at risk of financial hardship, fuel poverty or water poverty and offer support
  • support homelessness prevention activity and wider welfare support

We may also use your information to communicate with you and provide services appropriate to your needs.

How the law allows us to use your personal information

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is to perform a public task.

Lawful basis for processing

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) the lawful basis for processing is Article 6 UK GDPR:

  • (a) you have given consent
  • (c) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject
  • (e) a task carried out in the public interest

Special category data

Special category data is being processed under Article 9 UK GDPR:

  • (e) processing relates to personal data which are manifestly made public by the data subject
  • (b) processing is necessary for carrying out obligations and exercising specific rights in the field of social security and social protection law
  • (g) necessary for reasons of substantial public interest

Those tasks have a clear basis within the following legislation governing housing benefits, Council Tax Support and Universal Credit:

You can read the guide to lawful basis for processing special category data on the Information Commissioner's Office website

Where we use consent to process your personal data, we will explain to you what we are asking you to agree to and why.

If we have consent to use your personal data, you have the right to remove it at any time. If you remove your consent we are unlikely to be able to provide continued services to you.

If you want to remove your consent, contact benefits@bracknell-forest.gov.uk and we will deal with your request.

Who we share your information with

To process claims and fulfil our duties as a benefit provider we may need to share information with other organisations we work with or those who provide services on our behalf.

These include:

  • DWP, including:
    • Searchlight services
    • Housing Benefit Debt Service
    • DWP contracted processors
  • HMRC
  • Home Office, where information is needed to confirm immigration status, residency or entitlement
  • other council departments – in order to provide and include services and protect public funds
  • your landlord – if we make housing benefit payments directly to your landlord we will only share information about payment of benefits
  • your employer – to get back any money that has been overpaid to you
  • external enforcement agencies - for the collection of overpaid housing benefit, where appropriate
  • the cabinet office - for the purposes of a data matching exercise called the national fraud initiative - the purpose of this exercise is to detect fraud and error and the council is legally required to participate
  • Cabinet Office data matching programmes, including the National Fraud Initiative
  • other councils
  • processing partners
  • water, energy or other public service providers administering social tariffs, discounted utility schemes or other financial support, where there is a lawful basis to share information
  • auditors
  • Tribunal Service – after an appeal against a housing benefit decision
  • Valuation Service – after an appeal against a Council Tax Support decision
  • contractors who provide agency staff – to assess benefit applications
  • elected members – to resolve queries when acting on your behalf

We may provide information back to DWP where required by law or under approved data-sharing arrangements. This may include details relating to: 

  • Housing Benefit claims
  • Council Tax Support assessments
  • local welfare assistance
  • housing circumstances
  • overpayments
  • fraud investigations
  • information necessary to administer social security benefits and related services

Sharing information for research, evaluation and analysis

Where it is lawful, necessary and proportionate, we may share information for: 

  • research
  • evaluation
  • statistical analysis
  • data analytics
  • service improvement 

Where possible, information will be anonymised or aggregated before it is used or shared.

Where information has been received from DWP or through DWP data-sharing arrangements, we will only share it for research, evaluation, analysis or service improvement where this is permitted by law. This is consistent with the relevant DWP data-sharing agreement or Memorandum of Understanding, and supported by an appropriate lawful basis and data-sharing arrangement. We will not share DWP-derived information for unrelated research purposes unless this is expressly permitted.

Occasionally, your information may be accessed by contracted IT providers. Access by IT providers will only be for reasons of technical support, and any viewing of data will be incidental to this.

There are other specific situations where we may be required to disclose information about you, such as:

  • where we are required to provide the information by law
  • where disclosing the information is required to prevent or detect a crime, including fraud
  • where disclosure is in the vital interests of the person concerned

Making a request

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have 28 days to respond to you.

To make a request, email dpo@bracknell-forest.gov.uk. 

Service adjustments

If you need service adjustments, email benefits@bracknell-forest.gov.uk.