Council Tax Energy Rebate

Council Tax Energy Rebate - Privacy Notice

On 3rd February 2022 the UK Government announced measures to help protect millions of households from rising energy costs. This includes a council tax energy rebate for households in England, whose primary residence is valued in council tax bands A to D on 1st April 2022, being a one-off cash payment of £150.

This payment will operate outside of the council tax system, using the council tax database to identify eligible households - this is not a council tax discount.

For further information on eligibility for this scheme, please see our council tax energy rebate page 

This Privacy Notice sets out what personal data we will use, how we will use it, and why we need to, to make payment to you of this rebate.

 

Data Controller

City of Lincoln Council and North Kesteven District Council are joint data controllers for the purposes of assessing eligibility, administering, and making payments under the Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme.

 

Categories of personal data we collect and process

We process the personal data that we already hold about you within the council tax database or you provide to us for this purpose including:

  • Full name;
  • Full residential address;
  • Council tax reference and banding information;
  • Email address;
  • Mobile telephone number;
  • Home telephone number;
  • Bank account details;
  • Evidence in relation to Council Tax discounts and exemptions;
  • Details of other household members (where appropriate for Council Tax purposes)

 

Source and categories of personal data

We will obtain your personal data from our existing council tax database and any additional data you provide, if required, such as bank details, for payment to be made.

This may include ‘special category data’ such as health data when related to council tax exemptions and discounts.

 

What we use your personal data for

We will need to process your personal data to assess whether you are eligible to receive the rebate, and if so, to provide payment to you. 

We will not share this data with other organisations or individuals outside of City of Lincoln Council and North Kesteven District Council for any other purpose unless legally permitted for example for the prevention and detection of fraud.

 

Our lawful basis for processing the personal data

We must have a legal basis to process your personal data. Our lawful basis in the processing that we’ll undertake in assessing your eligibility for, and in making any payment to you, is based on a legal obligation and substantial public interest.

Where we use personal information to confirm that someone is eligible for the rebate, the sections of the law that apply are:

  • UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller
  • UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g)-processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest respecting the right to data protection and safeguarding the rights and interests of the data subject.
  • Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 2 (6) statutory and government purposes.


Data Processors and other recipients of your data

These are the recipients with which your personal data is shared:

Internally within the City of Lincoln Council and North Kesteven District Council to check against our existing council tax database, for eligibility, administration and payment purposes.

 

International Data Transfers and Storage

Your personal data is being stored in the UK and is not being transferred outside of the UK.

 

Personal data disposal and retention

We will only keep your personal data for as long as it is needed for the purposes of the scheme, and for audit and payment purposes and for no more than 6 years from conclusion of the matter in accordance with the Limitation Act 1980.

 

Your rights as a data subject

By law, you have a number of rights as a data subject, and this does not take away or reduce these rights. Your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply.

All information is processed in accordance with the City of Lincoln Council’s data protection policy

These rights are:

  1. Your right to get copies of your information – you have the right to ask for a copy of any information about you that is used.
  2. Your right to get your information corrected – you have the right to ask for any information held about you that you think is inaccurate, to be corrected
  3. Your right to limit how your information is used – you have the right to ask for any of the information held about you to be restricted, for example, if you think inaccurate information is being used.
  4. Your right to object to your information being used – you can ask for any information held about you to not be used. However, this is not an absolute right, and we may need to continue using your information, and we will tell you if this is the case.
  5. Your right to get information deleted – this is not an absolute right, and we may need to continue to use your information, and we will tell you if this is the case.

If you are unhappy or wish to complain about how your personal data is used as part of this programme, you should contact City of Lincoln Council in the first instance,

If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioners Office. Their website address is www.ico.org.uk and their postal address is:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

 

Security

We use appropriate technical, organisational and administrative security measures to protect any information we hold in our records from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We have written procedures and policies which are regularly audited, and the audits are reviewed at senior level.


Data Protection Officer

If you wish to exercise your rights under the data protection legislation or have any queries about how your information is being used, please contact the council’s Data Protection Officer at dpo@lincoln.gov.uk
 

Automated decision making or profiling

No decision will be made about you solely based on an automated decision (where a decision is taken about you using an electronic system without human involvement) which has a significant impact on you. 

 

Changes to our policy

We keep our privacy notice under regular review, and we will make new versions available on our privacy notice page on our website.

This privacy notice was last updated on 22 April 2022.