Family Housing Association (Birkenhead & Wirral) Ltd, Marcus House, Marcus Street, Birkenhead, Telephone: 0151 647 5000
Privacy Notice
1)
Summary
This is a public document which is intended to explain how Family Housing Association (Birkenhead & Wirral) Limited collects and processes personal information.
2)
Who are we?
Family Housing Association (Birkenhead & Wirral) Limited is a charitable Housing Association that provides homes at low rents to people in housing need. In order to provide and maintain homes we need to;
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Provide a repairs and maintenance service
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Manage allocation and letting of properties
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Deal with Anti-Social Behaviour
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Carry out adaptations to help those with disabilities stay in their homes
3)
Who do we collect information about?
We need information about various groups of people in order to provide services to our tenants and maintain our properties. They include;
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Applicants - Those applying to rent one of our properties
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Tenants - Successful applicants who become tenants
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Employees – Staff at Family Housing that help deliver services
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Board Members – A team of individuals with relevant skills and experience that are responsible for running the organisation and do so in a voluntary capacity.
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General Public – We operate CCTV systems at our office and at some of our housing developments.
4)
Why do we collect information?
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Applicants – We need to assess applicants to understand;
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whether they will be suitable tenants;
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their need for housing and whether the property we have will be suitable for their needs.
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Tenants – We need to manage their tenancy including collecting rent, managing repairs, maintenance and any adaptations needed due to disabilities. We also need to deal with tenancy compliance issues such as tenancy fraud and Anti-Social Behaviour. We need to make sure that we offer an equal service to all, so we use equality information to compare our performance for different groups of tenants.
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Employees – We need to assess job applicants and manage our work force.
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Board Members – We need to assess the suitability of applications to join our Board and to ensure they are provided with the information they need to run the Association.
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CCTV – To prevent crime and Anti-Social Behaviour.
5)
What Information do we collect?
Applicants – We need their name, address, contact details, current landlord, household details, references and we record details of our assessment.
Tenants – We need their name, address, National Insurance Number, contact telephone numbers, e-mail address, gender, their preferred method of communication, date of birth, emergency contact details, their doctor and proof of ID. We also need the name, date of birth and gender of other members of their household.
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We also ask for information regarding any disabilities affecting members of the household so that we can consider if any property adaptations are needed, or adjustments to services (such as large print rent statements), although tenants can choose not to provide this if they wish.
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We ask for Ethnic Background, Preferred Language and support needs / vulnerabilities of household members.
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We ask for financial information so that we can offer benefits advice or signpost tenants to the appropriate organisation for support, although tenants can choose not to provide this if they wish.
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We ask for Bank Details when setting up a direct debit to pay rent, but this information is entered directly on the ‘Allpay’ system and is not retained by us.
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We store information to manage the tenancy such as rent charged, payments, arrears agreements, reports of anti-social behaviour and any incidents that pose a risk to staff such as aggressive behaviour.
Employees / Job Applicants – We need their name, address, NI Number, contact numbers, emergency contacts, driving license, driving endorsements, hobbies / interests, criminal convictions, previous employment details, qualifications and referees.
Board Members – We need their name, address, phone numbers, e-mail address, date of birth, ethnic origin (for equality monitoring), profession / occupation and employers address.
Property Information – We keep records of all the repairs carried out to a property and the age and cost of its key components such as the kitchen, bathroom and boiler.
6)
Who do we share information with and why?
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We share our tenant’s name, address and contact numbers with contractors when asking them to carry out a repair or maintenance (including the annual gas service and periodic electrical testing).
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We share our tenant’s name, address and housing benefit reference with Wirral Borough Council to manage Housing Benefit payments and Council Tax
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We share our tenant’s name, address and contact details with our consultants in order to arrange inspections for our property improvement programme, asbestos surveys or structural surveys.
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We share our tenant’s name, address and date of birth with local agencies such as Merseyside Police or Social Services to manage criminal activity, serious Anti-Social Behaviour or to address serious welfare concerns.
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We share our tenants name, address and NI Number with the Department for Work and Pensions to help progress a tenant’s claim for Universal Credit.
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We share CCTV images of criminal or Anti-Social Behaviour with those directly affected, our solicitors and Merseyside Police.
7)
How long do we keep data?
We keep data relating to applicants for 6 years. We keep data relating to our tenants for the duration of their tenancy. Once our relationship with a tenant has come to an end, we erase sensitive personal information and only retain enough information to keep a historical record of who occupied the property. CCTV images are automatically erased each month unless they are being used as evidence in a criminal or civil legal proceedings.
8) What rights do you have?
Individuals have a number of rights under the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Bill 2018. To summarise briefly, those rights include:
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Right to be Informed - You should be told when information is being collected about you.
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Right of Access – You can ask for a copy of your personal information.
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Right of Rectification – You can ask for errors to be corrected.
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Right of Erasure – You can ask for data that is no longer needed to be erased.
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Right to Restrict Processing – You can ask for your data not to be used.
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Right to Data Portability – You can ask for your data to be transferred to another organisation.
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Right to Object – You can object to someone collecting or using some or all of your information.
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Rights related to automated decision making including profiling – We don’t use these tools but the right exists to protect you if organisations make decisions about you without human involvement.
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Right to withdraw consent – If you have previously provided information and given your consent to use it, you have the right to withdraw your consent.
To find out more information about your rights, contact us or visit the Information Commissioners Office at https://www.ico.org.uk/
9) What should you do if you’re not happy with the data we collect or how we use it?
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Firstly, you should contact us and explain why you aren’t happy and what you would like us to do. It is helpful if you can do this in writing but you don’t have to.
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If you are unhappy with our response, you can make a formal complaint. Please contact us for a copy of our Complaints Procedure.
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Finally, if you are still unhappy, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
10)
Who should I contact at Family Housing if I want to discuss this further?
