How we use your information
Aberdeen City Council collects the information about you in this form to assess your medical and accessibility needs to ensure you are considered for the most appropriate house type when applying for social rented housing. Also, to manage any tenancy that you may be offered, and to collect information about housing needs and trends.
The information you provide for will be used for the following purposes:
- To determine whether you are eligible for Council housing.
- To determine your housing needs, priority, and type of tenancy.
- To give you housing options advice.
- To assist and manage any allocation of suitable housing.
- To provide support to enable you to keep your Council house.
- To charge you for these Housing Support Services.
- To record whether you wish for a financial assessment to be carried out.
Assessment process
The information you provide about your previous tenancies will be shared with former landlords to check whether the tenancies were conducted satisfactorily. In order to determine your housing needs we may share your information with social work and NHS health services and we may request further information from you.
The Council is obliged to participate in the National Fraud Initiative in Scotland and in terms of this passes information to Audit Scotland for data matching to detect fraud or possible fraud. Details of this exercise can be found on Audit Scotland’s website.
After you’ve been assessed
Once we have agreed the outcomes of your assessment you will be placed on the appropriate housing list and considered for suitable accommodation in your areas of choice. When you qualify for an offer of accommodation the Housing Officer will contact you to discuss your housing application. If you are interested in the property being offered, it will be held for you and once the repairs are complete you will be given an appointment to sign the lease for the property.
Once you sign for your tenancy
When you sign for a sheltered or very sheltered housing tenancy, at that point you will be given this notice again and asked to sign a service agreement for the provision of housing support in your new home.
This will include the option to have a financial assessment to help with the costs of the services.
At this stage your information will be shared with Bon Accord Care, the support provider within Aberdeen City Council Sheltered and Very Sheltered Housing, to provide you support to enable you to keep your Council house, as outlined in your service agreement.
How long we keep your information for
Following your application, your information will be stored electronically. Your information will remain in our system while you are on a waiting list for Council housing.
If you are allocated a Council house your records will be kept securely and regularly updated during your tenancy with Aberdeen City Council. Your records will be kept securely for 7 more years from the close of your tenancy, or the last acknowledgement of debt, or the most recent contact with housing services, whichever is later.
If, for any reason, you are no longer on the waiting list for a house (for example, if you have alternative accommodation and no longer wish to be on the waiting list) we will retain your application information for a further 7 years from the time your name is taken off our waiting list.
Your rights
You have rights in relation to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it. See the Your data page for more information about all the rights you have, as well as the contact details for the Council’s Data Protection Officer. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office if you think we haven’t handled your data properly.
Our legal basis
The Council understands our legal bases for processing personal data in relation to your application for various purposes as Article 6(1)(e), Article 6(1)(b), and Article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation.
This is because it is part of our public task to provide housing under the Housing (Scotland) Acts 1987 and 2001, and Part 2 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, Article 6(1)(e).
Some of the processing outlined above, like participating in the National Fraud Initiative, we are required to do by law, Article 6(1)(c).
Where we need to process your data as part of managing your tenancy or to provide services you have agreed to as a tenant of sheltered or very sheltered housing, our legal basis is contract, Article 6(1)(b).
In delivering our service, the Council may process special category personal data. The Council understands our legal basis for doing so as Articles 9(2)(g) and 9(2)(h) of the General Data Protection Regulation. This means that it is in the substantial public interest to fulfil our obligations that we have considered all relevant information when making decisions relating to your housing situation under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, and in our duty to provide suitable residential accommodation including support, under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.