Privacy notices - Discretionary housing payments

Discretionary Housing Payments are administered under section 88(1) of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 to give financial assistance to a qualifying individual to meet, or help towards meeting, the individual’s housing costs. DHPs have been fully devolved in Scotland since 2017. The Scottish scheme for DHPs is established under Part 5 of the 2018 Act as of 1st April 2024. 

Section 131(3)(a) of the Welfare Reform Act (WRA) and regulation 7(3)(a) of the 2012 Regulations allows LAs to re-use ATLAS and LACI (electronic) data supplied (by the Department for Work and Pensions )for HB purposes for the purpose of determining whether to make a DHP and, if so, the amount of payment.  The administration of Discretionary Housing Payments, requires us to assess and process personal data about applicants.

This may include:

Name/address 
Date of birth
Housing benefit application/Universal Credit information 
Household situation
financial situation
Bank details

Special Category data will not be expressly requested in connection with applications for the Scheme, but it is possible that co-incident collection of Special Category data could occur as a result of information provided by applicants (or third party individuals acting on their behalf) in connection with the applications, including, but not limited to, information relating to the applicant's health or family circumstances.

We will not be able to process your application for funding. 

Legal Obligation (A6(1)(c) of GDPR) - The council is legally obliged to process this data
Special categories of data in relation to benefit applications are processed under Employment, social security and social protection law (A9(2)(b) of GDPR).

• View personal data
• Change personal data
• Delete personal data
• Restrict processing of personal data

Information is shared with the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP). This data will only be provided where the Council is processing claims on behalf of the customer.
Real time information is shared directly between the DWP and the Council to reduce fraud and error.
We also share this information with HM Revenue & Customs, other council services, and other local authorities.

The retention period is the current year plus 6 years.

Data is automatically transferred from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) IT systems into our systems.  This allows a range of means tested benefits to transfer over and removes complex, manual steps from the process to streamline it.  It some situations data from the DWP systems will update claims in our system which will automatically send out a benefit decision notice.

The data controller is The Highland Council

Data Protection Officer
Highland Council Headquarters
Glenurquhart Road
Inverness
IV3 5NX
01463 702029   

dpo@highland.gov.uk

If you are unhappy with the way we have processed your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/