Council Tax - Single Person Discount Privacy Notice

The personal data you provide to us through any of our forms relating to Council Tax and also any personal data we collect about you (“Your Information”) will be processed by East Dunbartonshire Council 12 Strathkelvin Place, Kirkintilloch, G66 1TJ for the administration of Council Tax and any benefits, reductions or discounts you are entitled to.

Your Information will be used to help administer efficiently and appropriately the Single Person Discount as part of the Council Tax regime.

We will use a combination of Your Information, third party data sources and specialist validation services to:

• Reaffirm the Single Person Discount for genuine claimants efficiently and accurately
• Remove ineligible or erroneous claims and increase revenue for the Council
• Provide 'fairness for all' citizens so that those who are paying the correct level of Council Tax are not subsidising their fellow citizens who are erroneously claiming the discount.

In order to do this we will pass Your Information (such as account number, name, property address and mailing address) to a third party who specialise in the provision of revenue and benefits software and who will deal with the processing work to validate the provision of Single Person Discounts for the Council.

Your Information will then be passed to a credit reference agency who will conduct a data matching exercise against a variety of data sources.

These sources are drawn from consumer credit agreements, previous credit applications, the electoral register, address links where the person gives a forwarding/previous address to a lender, and mortality data (taken from deaths register, insurance records etc).

The Council is then provided with a record detailing the likelihood of whether there are additional people linked to a property which may mean Single Person Discount is not applicable. A list of is also generated detailing adults who are associated with a property.

The list details:

• The names and date of birth of adults linked to the property in receipt of the Single Person Discount
• The first and last transaction date of any history of that person linked to the property; and
• An occupancy score which gives a sliding scale on the strength of the data.

The inclusion of your information in this process does not mean that you or any specific member of your household is under suspicion. It is simply a process undertaken by the Council to protect the funds it administers and ensure the appropriate allocation of benefits and resources in accordance with its legal requirements.

Where anomalies are detected in the data from the credit reference agency this indicates that there may be an inconsistency that requires further investigation. No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out.

The legal basis for processing Your Information is:

Our legal obligations under the following legislation:

• The Local Government Finance Act 1992 (to levy and collect Council Tax)
• The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (to ensure proper administration of the Council’s financial affairs (including the detection and/or prevention of fraud)
• The exercise of official authority vested in the Council under The Serious Crime Act 2007 (the ability to disclose information to prevent fraud)
• The following task carried out in the public interest:
  
  • The prevention and detection of fraud in relation to Council Tax lawfully due.

You do not have to provide Your Information to the Council.

Without the correct information however the Council may not be able to provide the Single Person Discount to you in these circumstances.

Deliberately providing false information in order to claim the Single Person Discount when you are not entitled to it is also a crime.

East Dunbartonshire Council uses the Scottish Council of Archives Records Retention Schedules to manage the amount of time the Council keeps Your Information. Further information on these can be found on the Scottish Archives website.

If you are searching SCARRS the Reference which covers Your Information is: 12.005.

We will hold Your Information from the end of the year it was provided for a period of 6 years. Your information will be retained for the minimum period necessary. Your Information will be destroyed under confidential conditions after this period.

Your Information will be accessed by Council Staff who need to do so to administer the Single Person Discount and if such administration is provided on the Council’s behalf by an external agency, with that agency.

The Council is also required to ensure proper administration of its funds so details will be checked internally for fraud prevention and verification purposes. Information is also analysed internally in order to provide management information, inform service delivery reform and similar purposes.

Your Information may also be shared with other departments within the Council, bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, other councils, public sector agencies, governmental departments and other private companies or entities (such as credit reference agencies, service providers/contractors and/or partner bodies).

The Council will also generally comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and appropriate.

We will specifically share Your Information with:

• Northgate Public Services (UK) Limited for the purpose processing Your Information and passing to Experian; and
• Experian Limited to provide a data matching service to provide a picture of the residency make up of an address at a particular point in time.