Citizens Advice Southend Privacy Policy
At Citizens Advice Southend we collect and use your personal information to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.
We only ask for the information we need. We always let you decide what you’re comfortable telling us, explain why we need it and treat it as confidential.
When we record and use your personal information we:
only access it when we have a good reason
only share what is necessary and relevant
don’t sell it to commercial organisations
At times we might use or share your information without your permission. If we do, we’ll always make sure there’s a legal basis for it. This could include situations where we have to use or share your information:
to comply with the law - for example, if a court orders us to share information. This is called ‘legal obligation’
to protect someone’s life - for example, sharing information with a paramedic if a client was unwell at our office. This is called ‘vital interests’
to carry out our legitimate aims and goals as a charity - for example, to create statistics for our national research. This is called ‘legitimate interests’
for us to carry out a task where we’re meeting the aims of a public body in the public interest - for example, delivering a government or local authority service. This is called ‘public task’
to carry out a contract we have with you - for example, if you’re an employee we might need to store your bank details so we can pay you. This is called ‘contract’
to defend our legal rights - for example, sharing information with our legal advisors if there was a complaint that we gave the wrong advice
We handle and store your personal information in line with the law - including the General Data Protection Regulation.
You can check our main Citizens Advice policy for how we handle most of your personal information.
This page covers how we, as your local charity, handle your information locally in our offices.
How Citizens Advice Southend collect your data
Online requests for advice - if you use our online form to seek advice, we will use your data to contact you and we will store the data on Casebook, the national Citizens Advice system. We are using the legal basis of legitimate interest to collect this data.
Referrals from other organisations - if you have given your permission to another organisation to make a referral to us we will receive information about you from that organisation. We will use your data to contact you and we will store the data on Casebook, the national Citizens Advice system. We are using the legal basis of legitimate interest to collect this data.
We commonly receive referrals from Southend-on-Sea City Council, South Essex Homes, Southend Carer’s Consortium and the Complex Care Co-ordination Service of EPUT.
Volunteering - if you express an interest in volunteering with us through our online form we will use your data to contact you. We are using the legal basis of legitimate interest to collect this data.
What Citizens Advice Southend ask for
To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/citizens-advice-privacy-policy/your-information/
How Citizens Advice Southend use your information
To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/citizens-advice-privacy-policy/your-information/
Working on your behalf
When you give us authority to act on your behalf, for example to help you with a Universal Credit claim, we’ll need to share information with that third party.
We commonly share information with Southend-on-Sea City Council, South Essex Homes, the Home Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.
How Citizens Advice Southend store your information
We operate a case management system called AdvicePro for our Legal Aid work stored on our secure local server.
How Citizens Advice Southend share your information
If we refer you to another organisation we will need to share your information with that organisation. We would get your written consent to share this information.
Examples of referrals we make are to the Citizens Advice DRO Unit and Debt Management Service.
We share anonymised information with our funders to demonstrate the impact of our work to meet contractual requirements.
Our funders include Southend-on-Sea City Council, Legal Aid Agency, Home Office, Macmillan and the NatWest (RBS).
Contact Citizens Advice Southend about your information
If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.
Telephone: 01702 969696 or 456352, open Monday to Friday 9am-4.30pm
Email: enquiries@citizensadvicesouthend.org.uk
You can contact us to:
find out what personal information we hold about you
correct your information if it’s wrong, out of date or incomplete
request we delete your information
ask us to limit what we do with your data - for example, ask us not to share it if you haven’t asked us already
ask us to give you a copy of the data we hold in a format you can use to transfer it to another service
ask us stop using your information
Who’s responsible for looking after your personal information
The national Citizens Advice charity and your local Citizens Advice operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they are a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.
Each local Citizens Advice is an independent charity, and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity. The Citizens Advice membership agreement also requires that the use of your information complies with data protection law.
You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.