Privacy notice housing fraud

Most of the information we ask you for is essential – you must provide this by law. Other information is optional. However, if you choose not to tell us something this may affect what action we take.

When we speak to you we’ll ask for the following essential information:

• personal details including your current and any past names, nationality, date of birth, gender and national insurance number
• financial information including your income, benefits received, expenditure, details of any debts, bank and building society details, account balances, savings, any money from inheritance and properties and business you own
• address history including your current and previous addresses, how long you've lived there and why you moved

Other information that is not essential but optional includes:

• preferred contact details, which could be a phone number and/or email address
• physical or mental health information including your doctor or hospital consultant’s details

We collect your information for the following purposes:

• personal details are used to identify you
• health information is used to understand your needs
• financial information is used to investigate your situation
• address history is used to investigate your situation
• preferred contact is used to contact you if we have any questions

We might share your information in these situations:

• if we think you have claimed benefits you are not entitled to we will contact the Department for Work and Pensions as we have a duty to do this under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (Power to Require Information) (England) Regulations 2014
• if we believe you have claimed Council Tax Reduction or Housing Benefit you are not entitled to we will contact the Revenues and Benefits Fraud Team as we have a duty to do this under the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Detection of Fraud and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 and the Social Security Administration Act 1992
• your personal information may be shared with the police for the prevention and detection of crime as we have a duty to do this under the Crime & Disorder Act 1998

The information you provide is used for us to execute our public duty under:

• the Housing Act 1996
• the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (Power to Require Information) (England) Regulations 2014
• Council Tax Reduction Scheme (Detection of Fraud and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013
• Social Security Administration Act 1992

All information submitted in the application form and attached documents will be kept for no longer than three years.

You do have some legal rights in respect of the personal information we collect from you. Please see our Privacy policy page for further details.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer by email at data.protection@arun.gov.uk.