Your data: Scottish Welfare Fund

How we use your information

Aberdeen City Council collects and maintains information about you in order to administer the Scottish Welfare Fund and the Self-Isolation Support Grant within Aberdeen City.

This information can include your name, the name(s) of any other people who live in your property, your address, your date of birth, the date(s) of birth for any other people who live in your property, your National Insurance Number, the National Insurance Number of your partner if you have one and they live at your address, financial information for you and others in your household, your bank details, your contact details and those of your employer if you have one. If you have a representative or other agency applying on your behalf, we will also hold their name and contact details.

We also hold a variety of other sensitive information provided by you as part of your application such as whether you have been in prison, in care, been homeless, whether you have mental health problems, a recognised disability or chronic illness, whether you have addiction or substance misuse problems, whether you are fleeing violence and/or whether you have been in contact with any other organisations or agencies.

As part of the verification process that is undertaken to confirm eligibility for awards made under Scottish Welfare Fund legislation, we are also provided with information from a variety of different sources, including (but not limited to) private landlords, Housing Associations, other Local Authorities, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), HMRC, your employer if you have one, Police Scotland, the Prison Service, third sector organisations and other Council departments. This information is also used by us for administering the Scottish Welfare Fund and Self-Isolation Support Grant.   We may also speak to these organisations as part of confirming and administering your claim / application, this includes verifying that you’ve been advised by the NHS to self-isolate by checking information shared with the Council by the NHS and where appropriate checking with your child’s school.

Where you have given permission for an individual or organisation to act on your behalf we will share information about your application with them.

If we are providing you with domestic appliances, carpets or other items as part of any award we make, we will provide our suppliers with your details to enable delivery and fitting to take place. 

We share the information collected by the Scottish Welfare fund with the Scottish Government to prepare quarterly and annual report and for other statistical purposes. A link to their Privacy Notice will be made available here once it has been published by them.

If you ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to review our handling of your claim, we will share your information with Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. 

We are required by law to protect the public funds we administer. We may share information provided to us with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud. 

How long will we keep your information

We will keep your information whilst we assess your claim and make a determination on any review which you have requested. Once an award has been made or your request for a review completed, we will keep your information for the current financial year, plus six more years. We will do this by deleting your information from our electronic systems and securely destroying any hard copy records we hold relating to your claim.

Your Data, Your Rights

You have rights to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it.  More information on all the rights you have, how they work in practice, and the contact details of our Data Protection Officer is available here. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They are the body responsible for making sure organisations like the Council handle your data lawfully.  

Our Legal Basis

Wherever the Council processes personal data, we need to make sure we have a legal basis for doing so in data protection law. The Council understands our legal basis for processing personal data in relation to you as follows: