Dudley Council's Revenue and Benefit Service administers the billing and collection processes for Council Tax, Business Rates and Sundry Debts. We also process applications for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction, Discretionary Housing Payments, Energy Support Payments and Housing Support Fund Payments for residents within the borough, along with the processing and recovery of Housing Benefit Overpayments.
We will only collect personal data about you and your household that is required to undertake one or more of the above functions. This may include names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, financial information (inc. bank account details) etc. This will include information you have given us, e.g. on your benefits application form, and information that we receive from third parties e.g. landlords.
The provision of personal data is a statutory requirement to determine liability to pay Council Tax and entitlement to discounts, exemptions or other reductions. A failure to provide such data may be an offence, may prevent the Council from collecting public funds necessary to provide services and may result in inaccurate Council Tax bills.
Local Government Finance Act 1992;
National Non Domestic Rates under the Local Government Finance Act 1988;
Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 and Local Government Finance Act 2012;
Social Security Administration Act
Digital Economy Act 2017, part 5, chapter 3
Section 45A of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007
Sundry debts are collected on behalf of various services within the Council. Individual debt types are likely to be governed by specific legislation and the privacy statement for that service area should be viewed to confirm this.
The processing of your information is necessary for compliance with the legal obligations contained in these Acts and regulations.
The council uses the services of NEC Software Solutions, Victoria Forms, Govtech Solutions Ltd (inc. Granicus), Ascendant Solutions, APS Group, Analyse Local and MAPS Solutions Europe Ltd to process information on behalf of Dudley Council.
Your personal data and the personal data of anyone who lives with you will be shared with, or obtained from the following organisation (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:
HMRC
The Valuation Office Agency
The Valuation Tribunal Service
HM Courts and Tribunal Service
The Magistrates’ and other Courts
The Office of National Statistics (ONS)
The Department for Work and Pensions
Employers (of a person subject to a Magistrates’ Court liability order or from whom recovery of a debt is being sought)
Obtained from any other legal person (e.g. other billing authorities, letting agents, solicitors, landlords, educational establishments, medical practitioners etc)
Enforcement and Recovery Agents - the Council uses the services of Bristow & Sutor (inc MBA Group Ltd and Credit Security), Greenhalgh Kerr Ltd, Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd, Newlyns Plc, Rundle & Co Ltd & Smart Insolvency Solutions Ltd.
Your personal information and the personal information of anyone who lives with you will be treated in accordance with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018.
We may share details with other Council services in order to ensure our records are accurate and up-to-date and to perform any of our statutory duties, including enforcement duties. It may also be shared both internally within the council and external fraud prevention agencies, such as CIFAS. The data will be used to prevent and detect crime, fraud and money-laundering, it will also be used to verify your identity, protect public funds and assist in debt recovery. If fraud or crime is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment, also action may be taken against you.
We will only use this information in ways which are permitted by Data Protection Law.
We will keep your information for as long as it is required by us or other regulatory bodies in order to comply with legal and regulatory requirements or for other operational reasons. In most cases this will be a minimum of six years. We are currently working with our software supplier on a data retention/cleansing module across Revenues and Benefits. We confirm that all data retained is kept on a secure system that is compliant with strict government security standards.
Your Rights
You have the right to:
request a copy of your information (known as a subject access request),
request rectification or erasure of your information,
request a restriction on the processing of your information,
object to processing of your information, and
complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the way Dudley Council processes your information.
If you require further information about the use of your data or would like to exercise any of the above rights, please contact:
Data Protection and Information Governance Manager, Dudley MBC, Finance and Legal, The Council House, Priory Road, Dudley, DY1 1HF email:information.governance@dudley.gov.uk or call 0300 555 2345 and ask for the Data Protection Officer
