How we use your data
The Hardship Fund was created by the British Red Cross with their partner Aviva and the Aviva Foundation to help those most financially impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.
The fund can provide short term financial help for people who can’t afford essentials such as food and toiletries, somewhere safe to sleep, access to a telephone and the internet or fuel to keep the lights on, cook or stay warm.
The fund is open to people with no recourse to public funds, people aged 70 or over, people who have had disruption or delays to welfare benefits or asylum support, households who have lost their primary earner to coronavirus, survivors of gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, people facing homelessness or living in temporary accommodation. The fund is not available to anyone in employment or already receiving financial support from statutory or voluntary services.
Aberdeen City Council will manage the referral process of the British Red Cross Hardship Fund. The British Red Cross requires your consent to process your application, so when we process your referral we will ask you if you wish us to share your information with them so that they can process your application. If you wish to apply for the fund, we will then share your information with the British Red Cross so that they can process your application.
How long we keep your information for
We will keep your personal details for 6 years after which they will be disposed of securely. The Council will keep an anonymised record of your request for statistical purposes. Statistical information will be used to ensure that we are delivering the right services to meet the needs of our service users.
Your data will be stored on secure servers within the EEA by our suppliers Firmstep Ltd and Advice Pro and on servers maintained by Aberdeen City Council in our local data centre with BrightSolid.
Your rights
You have rights to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it. See more information about the rights you have, how they work in practice, and the contact details of our Data Protection Officer. 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 Aberdeen City Council processes your data we need to tell you what our legal basis in Data Protection law for doing so. The Council understands our legal basis for processing your data as Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation, because enabling individuals to access financial support is part of our public task as a local authority. This is because the Council has the power to provide this support under the Social Work Scotland Act 1968, Local Government (Scotland) Act 2003 and Housing (Scotland) Acts.
In carrying out this function the Council is likely to process special categories of personal data. The Council understands our legal basis for doing so as Article 9(2)(g) of the General Data Protection Regulation, because processing is necessary for reasons of substantial interest.