Disclaimer, copyright and privacy
At Citizens Advice 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 anyone
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 and the Data Protection Act 2018.
You can check our main Citizens Advice policy for how we handle most of your personal information.
The following covers how we, as your local charity, handle your information locally in our offices.
How Citizens Advice St Helens collects your data
To find out how we collect your data, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy
What Citizens Advice St Helens asks for
To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy
How Citizens Advice St Helens uses your information
To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy’
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.
These include:
- St Helens Council
- Department of Works and Pensions
- HMRC
- Helena Housing
- Utility companies for example British Gas, Untied Utilities
How Citizens Advice St Helens store your information
Information that we obtain from you may be stored locally on our Office365 system.
How Citizens Advice St Helens share your information
Before we share any of your information we will always
- obtain your written consent
- explain what information is to be shared
- the reason why it is to be shared
- who the information is to be shared with
Contact Citizens Advice St Helens about your information
If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.
Citizens Advice St Helens
2nd floor Millennium Centre
Corporation Street
St Helens
WA10 1HJ
Telephone: 01744 737866 open Monday to Friday 9.00am – 4.00pm
Email: enquiries@casthelens.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 each local Citizens Advice operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.
Citizens Advice St Helens and The Greater Merseyside Money Advice Project (GMMAP) operate a further database system that securely stores personal information of only persons accessing that service. This means they’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in the GMMAP 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.