Household Support Fund Privacy Notice
The government periodically provides a Household Support Fund (HSF) grant that is made available to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England to support those most in need. Funding will be used primarily to support households with essentials costs related to food, energy and water bills.
We will collect data to ensure that this grant is used to identify (where possible) and support families and vulnerable individuals who are experiencing financial hardship, so that they are able to access food and essential supplies.
Families and vulnerable individuals will either be identified from records already held or will be invited to apply for support by completing an application form. Where a form has to be completed, families can complete the form themselves or a professional can complete it and refer on their behalf.
We will use personal data to assess eligibility for any grant funding received and to distribute grant funding to individuals as appropriate.
As part of your application will we collect details relating to the adult(s) and any children who reside in the household. This will include:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- National Insurance Number
- Evidence to demonstrate that you are eligible for the scheme (e.g. details of benefits received)
- Proof of identity (e.g. Passport / Driving Licence / bank statement etc.)
- Proof of residency (utility bill)
- Details of school that child or children attend
- Details regarding child or children’s free school meal eligibility
We may collect your data from:
- You
- A referral from a professional
- Other local partners that we work with to deliver services to you
Your information will be used to determine your eligibility for this grant.
Where necessary, information may be shared with partners and other organisations that provide services on our behalf. In such cases, the information provided is only the minimum necessary to enable them to provide services to you. These organisations are required to retain your information in a secure manner and only use it to undertake the services they provide to you. We will share your basic details such as name and address with a company we work with to issue you with vouchers under the scheme.
We are also required by law to protect the public funds we administer and may share information provided to us with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds in order to prevent and detect fraud. More information is available from the National Fraud Initiative website.
Under the General Data Protection Regulations we have a legal duty to protect any information that we hold about you. We take measures to safeguard your data and apply security standards and controls to prevent any unauthorised access to it. Information which you have provided the council will be stored securely. It will only be used for the purpose(s) stated when the information was collected and will only be keep for the minimum amount of time required. For information on how long we keep your data please see our record retention schedules.
Under the GDPR you, as the Data Subject, you have the right to:
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access the information we hold about you. This information is usually provided free of charge but we may charge depending on the administrative costs of providing the information. You have the right to request this in machine-readable form so that it can, if required, be transferred to a third party.
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request that we rectify any information about you that is incorrect. Simple inaccuracies, such as address changes will be made. Depending on the purpose for processing, records (including statements and opinions) may not be changed. However, there may be the option for you to provide a supplementary statement which will be added to the file.
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request that records we hold about you are erased.
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restrict processing of the information we hold about you if you have an objection to that processing, whilst your objection is investigated.
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request that any information that you have provided to us is given back to you in a format that you can give to another service provider if required.
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object to processing of your personal information including automated decision-making and profiling.
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Make a complaint to a supervisory authority if you are not satisfied with how the information held about you has been handled.
If you have any queries about the Household Support Fund process and application please use - householdsupportfund@staffordshire.gov.uk
If you have any questions about our privacy policy or information, we hold about you, or if you have a complaint about privacy or misuse of data in relation to the Household Support Fund please use - dpo@staffordshire.gov.uk
Post to:
Data Protection Officer
Information Governance Unit
Staffordshire County Council
Staffordshire Place 2, Tipping Street,
Stafford, ST16 2LP.
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).