Revenues and benefits


Your privacy and the protection of your personal information is very important to us and we are committed to robust compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

These privacy notices explain what we do with your personal information, your rights and how we protect it.

These notices are for all our service users and clients. This version of the notice was adopted in November 2020 and will be kept under review.

Who we are

Maidstone Borough Council
Maidstone
Kent
ME15 6JQ

Phone: 01622 602000
Email: Data Protection Officer

You can find us in the Information Commissioner’s register of organisations.

Collection and recovery of Business Rates

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone Number
  • Email address
  • Financial
  • Court Proceedings
  • Employment.
  • Customer ID
  • Account number
  • Property reference
  • Business address
  • Property description

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to the collection and recovery of business rates will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of service.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation

Sharing personal information

Where necessary we will also share information where required to by law or in the public interest, including:

  • Valuation Office Agency
  • One Maidstone (the Business Improvement District)

Collection and recovery of Council Tax

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Forwarding address
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Health/Disability
  • Financial information
  • Employment
  • Landlord and agent details
  • Criminal background
  • Court proceedings.

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of service.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation.

Sharing personal information

This authority is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers and we may share information provided to us with other services within the Council, or other bodies responsible for auditing and administering public funds that have a legitimate reason to request the disclosure e.g. the prevention/detection of fraud.

In event you have an outstanding balance on your Council Tax and you do not respond to our requests for payment, your personal data is provided to His Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) to authorise the summons to be sent out. This process involves a bulk application listing being submitted to HMCTS for a Liability Order to be granted by Magistrates. This then secures the Council’s interest in the debt. The information shared with HMCTS is:

  • Name(s) of who is liable
  • Address of the property
  • Period(s) of liability
  • Charge for period of liability
  • Summons and liability order costs incurred

This sharing is permitted under Regulations 34 and 35 of Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992. The Magistrates need to be satisfied that the information presented to them is correct for a Liability Order application to be granted.

Council Tax investigationsĀ 

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone Number
  • Email address
  • Health/Disability
  • Financial Information
  • Employment
  • Landlord and Agent details.

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of service.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation.

Sharing personal information

Where necessary we will share information where required to by law or in the public interest, including:

  • Kent Intelligence Network
  • Local Authorities
  • Central Government
  • Police
  • Housing Associations
  • Credit Agencies
  • Destin
  • Intec
  • National Anti Fraud Network – NAFN
  • Locta
  • Retriever

We sometimes use our Facebook page MBC Fraud and Compliance to assist in these investigations.

Discretionary Housing Payments

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone Number,
  • Email address
  • Health/Disability
  • Financial Information
  • Employment
  • Reason for application
  • Other members of the household

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to Discretionary Housing Payments will be kept from the end of service plus seven years.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Official authority/public task.

Sharing personal information

Where necessary we will share information where required to by law or in the public interest, including:

  • Housing Associations
  • Your landlord (or an agent of the landlord)
  • The party payment is paid to under section 8 of Discretionary Housing Payment Policy

We may also share personal data with anti-fraud and law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime.

We will share personal data with our parent department(s) in Central Government in line with statutory functions.

As part of interagency initiatives, and Maidstone Task Force, we may share personal data with our partnership organisations including Kent Police, Kent County Council, One Maidstone, housing associations and voluntary organisations when it is necessary and lawful for us to do so.

Exceptional Hardship Payments

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone Number
  • Email address
  • Health/Disability
  • Financial Information
  • Employment

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to Exceptional Hardship payments will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of service.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation.

Sharing personal information

We do not share this information.

Housing Benefit and Council Tax SupportĀ 

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone Number
  • Email address
  • Health/Disability
  • Financial Information
  • Employment
  • National Insurance
  • Identification
  • Visas

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claims will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of service.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation.

Sharing personal information

Where necessary we will also share information where required to by law or in the public interest, including:

  • Central Government
  • South East Water
  • Policy in Practice
  • Citizens Advice Bureau

Housing Benefit investigation

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Health/Disability
  • Criminal background
  • Vehicle registration
  • Financial information
  • Court proceedings
  • Employment
  • Date of birth
  • National insurance

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to housing benefits investigations will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of service.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation.

Sharing personal information

Where necessary we will also share information where required to by law or in the public interest, including:

  • Central Government
  • Housing Associations
  • Credit Agencies
  • Police
  • Local Authorities
  • Kent Intelligence Network
  • Destin
  • Intec
  • National Anti Fraud Network – NAFN
  • Locta
  • Retriever

We sometimes use our Facebook page MBC Fraud and Compliance to assist in these investigations.

Reviews

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Health/Disability
  • Financial information
  • Probate details

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to reviews will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of the review.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation.

Sharing your personal information

Where necessary we will also share information where required to by law or in the public interest, including:

  • Central Government
  • Local Government
  • Police
  • Housing Associations

Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHIP)

Open

What types of information do we collect from you?

  • name
  • address
  • date of birth
  • medical needs
  • income
  • Housing Benefit claim form
  • business/landlord providing accommodation
  • children's date of birth (where applicable)
  • criminal convictions (where applicable)

Children's names should not be provided because it is not required. Where possible, this information will be redacted. If it is not possible, this information will be shared but will not be used for the purposes of the investigations.

Using your personal information

This project is designed to establish the quality of existing and planned accommodation and support. It will verify that public funds are being used appropriately. The overarching intent is to improve the standard of provision for vulnerable people and to guard against exploitation of these people by unsuitable landlord/providers.

Where applicable, your information will be sent to the SHIP Team at Medway Council who will conduct an investigation. Recommendations will then be sent to us and accommodation providers. If necessary, the following professionals will be asked for information:

  • social workers
  • support workers
  • Kent Police

The Housing and Benefit’s Teams will use the SHIP recommendations to provide follow-up support and actions, in line with existing process.

Keeping your personal information

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to housing benefits investigations will be kept for 6 years plus 1 year from the end of service.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Our lawful basis for processing is task in the public interest. Our lawful basis for processing special category data is substantial public interest.

The public interest is that local authorities have the power to:

  • Inspect local accommodation conditions and enforce improvements and removals of hazards where needed (Housing Act 2004).
  • Research and collect evidence on the provider and scheme in relation to a claim for Housing Benefit by an individual, to assess whether the eligibility conditions have been met for specified accommodation (as per regulation 86 of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006). The power to administer HB comes from the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.
  • Increase standards of support exempt accommodation in line with the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023.

Sharing personal information

Where necessary we will also share information where required to by law or in the public interest, including:

  • SHIP Team at Medway Council
  • central government
  • housing associations
  • credit agencies
  • police
  • social workers
  • support workers
  • local authorities
  • Kent Intelligence Network
  • National Anti-Fraud Network

We will use your information to:

  • Provide you with services.
  • Retain a record to permit us to audit and quality assure those services.
  • Contact you for user satisfaction surveys.
  • Plan and manage our services and to meet the requirements of external regulators.
  • Conduct Council Tax and Housing Benefit investigations.
  • Give you a better experience on our website and to improve the relevance of online advertising you see. Please see our Privacy Statement.
  • Keep visitors and colleagues safe and secure, we also use CCTV at our premises which records images.

Automated decision-making

There are no automated decisions in this process.

Your rights over your personal information

  • Access – you can request copies of your personal information that is held by the Council.
  • Rectification – you can ask us to correct any incorrect information.
  • Deletion – you can ask us to delete your personal information. The Council can refuse to delete information if we have a lawful reason to keep this.
  • Portability – you can ask us to transfer your personal data to different services or to you.
  • Limit processing – how it is going to be used in the future.
  • Right to object - you have the right to object to how your data is being used

Find out more information on the ICO website.

Staying in touch

We want to keep in touch with clients and service users to tell you about our services, by post, email, text or social media.

We will not do this if you opt out or object, and you can change your mind at any time. Just get in touch using the contact details at the top of this notice or unsubscribe within any of our awareness-raising communications.

We will not use your personal information to send you marketing communications by email or text without your consent.