Staffordshire Financial Assessment Privacy Notice

Information held about you

Staffordshire County Council will collect personal data about you and your household in order to work out how much you may have to pay towards social care services, and to identify any welfare benefits you may be entitled to as part of a financial assessment process.

This information will include:

• Details about you, such as your full name, date of birth, current and previous address, if relevant, telephone number, email address, national insurance number
• Your finances, such as property, savings, capital assets, income, household and disability related expenses
• Some other relevant information may be needed (where applicable) such as the make-up of your household and your partner's financial circumstances.

Who is processing your data?

All personal data held, is processed in accordance with data protection law. The data controller for the information provided through the financial assessment process is Staffordshire County Council.

Zipporah Ltd are the data processors who will process any service and financial information, if relevant, on behalf of the council.

DWP is the data controller of the data it supplies to Staffordshire County Council in accordance with information sharing arrangements. Staffordshire County Council will become the data controller upon receipt of the data.

How we will use the information we hold about you

We will collect information about you, where applicable to:

• Calculate your contribution towards any council funded care and support services you receive and to send you invoices for payment or set up other payment arrangements.
• Identify any welfare benefits you receive or may be entitled to
• Comply with legal obligations, for example where processing is necessary to safeguard vulnerable persons, protect public funds, for the prevention and/or detection of crime including fraud.

We will obtain information about you from the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, and other council departments for the purposes of completing a financial assessment, verifying income, pensions and benefits, and making charging arrangements.

How the law allows us to use your information

The legal basis for processing the data is:

Our legal obligation under the following legislation:

• Sections 14, 17, and 69-70 of the Care Act 2014 provides a framework that enables a council to charge a person when it is arranging to meet care and support needs.
• Section 4 of the Care Act 2014 places a duty on the council to provide information and advice that is accessible, including financial information.
• The Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 set out: the power to charge for certain types of care and support; the duty to carry out a financial assessment; rules on the treatment and calculation of capital and income within a financial assessment.
• The prevention and detection of crime, including false representation in accordance with the Fraud Act.

The legal gateway for sharing your information:

• Regulation 5(1) (c) of the Social Security (Information-sharing in relation to Welfare Services etc.) Regulations 2012 made under Section131 (1) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.

Who we will share your information with

We will share your information under our legal obligations and with partner organisations, including:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HM Revenue and Customs, and other council departments for the purposes of:

• Reducing fraud and error
• Protecting the most vulnerable
• Delivering fairness to those claiming benefits and the taxpayer

We will not normally share your information with organisations other than our partner organisations without your consent. However, there may be certain circumstances where we would share without consent, such as where we are required to do so by law, to safeguard public safety, and in risk of harm or emergency situations. We will only share the minimum information for the purpose, on a need to know basis and with appropriate individuals.

How long we keep your personal information

We will only keep your information for the minimum period necessary. All information will be held securely and destroyed under confidential conditions. Your personal record will be retained for the maximum retention period relevant to your social care file.

Your rights

You have a number of rights under data protection law, including the right to request your information and to request that the information is amended or erased if incorrect.

To request your records, you will need to put your request in writing and provide proof of identification to the Data Protection Officer DPO@staffordshire.gov.uk

You also have a right to make a complaint about our handling of your personal data to the Information Commissioners Office. Financial information will be retained for seven years.

Providing accurate information

It is important that we hold accurate and up-to-date information about you to assess your financial circumstances and deliver the appropriate services. If any of your details have changed, or change in the future, please tell us so that we can update your records.

Further information 

If you have any questions or concerns about how your information is used, please contact the financial assessment in the first instance. You can also contact the Data Protection Officer at Staffordshire County Council. DPO@staffordshire.gov.uk

Service web page

How we calculate what you may have to pay towards your care 

Last updated on 5 February 2024

Please find a printable PDF version here - 
Staffordshire Financial Assessments Privacy Notice V1 (255 Kb)

Privacy Statement 

This privacy notice applies to the Special Guardianship Financial Assessment process and tells you what to expect from us regarding how we use your personal data and how we keep it safe.

Why we collect your data

As part of the process to assess the (child/ren) and yourself/ves for special guardianship, we will undertake a financial assessment. Should the special guardianship order be granted you will be expected to have an annual review of your financial information, as per the regulations.

Special guardianship guidance: Statutory guidance for local authorities on the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 (as amended by the Special Guardianship (Amendment) Regulations 2016). These can be accessed here: Special guardianship guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Lawful basis for processing GDPR Article 6(1)(e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority. We are able to rely on this article as we are acting in line with the government’s statutory guidance on Special Guardianship by processing your information for the purposes outlined.
It may be that we collect data that could be considered as special category as part of this process. For any special category data processed in relation to this assessment we require an Article 9 condition. We rely on (g) Reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law), backed up by public interest condition 6. Statutory and government purposes.

How we collect your data

Your data may be collected or recorded in various ways, including;

• By email
• By letter
• By telephone

Data will primarily be gathered via the information provided on the financial assessment form. In the rare event that we need to ask other agencies for relevant data about you this will be to fulfil our legal responsibilities or provide services to you.

How we use your data

Someone from the Financial Assessment Team will be in touch shortly after a referral is made by your social worker or Family Practitioner in our internal system. The initial contact will be by email, so it is important that we hold up-to-date information. If you need a form sending by post, then please contact The Financial Assessment Team when you receive the initial email.
Duty Email: children.fa@staffordshire.gov.uk

We will require the following, including evidence of such, which can be screenshots from a banking app for example or from a bank statement. We do not need all your bank account number or sort code just the last 4 digits so we can identify if you have more than one account.

Initially we need to know who lives in your house. Partner/wife/husband, any children or non-dependents or anyone else in your home.

Section 1 will focus on your income(s) and include all members of the household:

• Wages
• Self-employment income
• Any benefits received

This section also looks at:

• All bank accounts in your name(s)
• Capital
• Savings
• Investments, including any second homes or money held in trust, for example.

Section 2 looks at your priority expenditure by asking for the following information:

• Mortgage/Rent
• Council tax
• Any childcare requirements including costs, this can be nursery, before and after school club or holiday club
• Any priority arrears such as mortgage, rent, council tax or utilities, loans/credit &/or store cards/hire purchase/personal finance owing, this may include any debt plans you have established. We will require balances and the minimum amounts required.

We will not be able to complete the financial assessment without co-operation which includes the evidence we require to complete this process.

We do not require any further information on your expenditure for example, but not limited to, food, mobile phone or internet costs.

This information will be used to identify any benefit entitlement that you may have now and any additional benefit entitlement should the Special Guardianship Order(s) be made. This will also calculate how much SCC will be potentially paying you to support and care for the child/ren. If you are an approved foster carer, in accordance with our policy, we will offer you a ‘no disincentive’ allowance but we will not pay in addition to welfare benefits. This will be explained and be included in your support plan for each child. Should this be a private application, we will assess your finances and the outcome will be used to potentially offer a discretionary allowance(s). Again, we will not pay in addition to welfare benefits. This means your allowance will be made up from various sources.

How we share your data

Where necessary information may be shared with other organisations and partners. In such cases, the information provided is only the minimum necessary. If these organisations are required to retain your information they will do so in a secure manner in line with their retention policies and only use it to undertake the services they provide.

We may share your information with, but not limited to, the following:

• Department for Work and Pensions
• HMRC
• Social Worker / Family Practitioner working with you
• Resource Panel – this panel will review all your information and make a Key Decision on what is payable to you

At no time will your information be passed to other organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior express consent.

How to contact us

Please do not hesitate to make contact with the Financial Assessment Officers or the Fostering, Permanency and SGO Support Team if you have any questions or queries.
Children’s Financial Assessment Officers
Duty Email: children.fa@staffordshire.gov.uk

Clare Bishop Welfare Benefits Officer for the Fostering, Permanency and SGO Support Team is available should you have any questions prior to the financial assessment team making contact with you. Clare can be contacted as follows:
Telephone: 07791 144867
Email: clare.bishop@staffordshire.gov.uk
Duty Email: SGOsupportteam@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.

Email:  dpo@staffordshire.gov.uk

Post to: 

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). 

How we look after your data

The details you provide will be held on our secure Caredirector database.

Under the UK 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 to us will be stored securely.

The amount of time data is kept before being disposed of will vary depending on why it was collected, how it is used, and various UK laws. Our retention and disposal schedules give details about how long we keep data.

What are your rights?

Under the UKGDPR you, as the Data Subject, have the right to:

• 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.
• 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.
• Request that records we hold about you are erased.
• Restrict processing of the information we hold about you if you have an objection to that processing, whilst your objection is investigated.
• 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.
• Object to processing of your personal information including automated decision making and profiling.
• Make a complaint to a supervisory authority if you are not satisfied with how the information held about you has been handled.