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Privacy Policy

At Citizens Advice Test Valley we collect and use your personal information to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.

We only ask for the information we need. We always let you decide what you’re comfortable telling us, explain why we need it and treat it as confidential.

When we record and use your personal information we:

• only access it when we have a good reason;
• only share what is necessary and relevant;
• don’t sell it to commercial organisations.

At times we might use or share your information without your permission. If we do, we’ll always make sure there’s a legal basis for it. This could include situations where we have to use or share your information:

• to comply with the law – for example, if a court orders us to share information. This is called ‘legal obligation’;
• to protect someone’s life – for example, sharing information with a paramedic if a client was unwell at our office. This is called ‘vital interests’;
• to carry out our legitimate aims and goals as a charity – for example, to create statistics for our national research. This is called ‘legitimate interests’;
• for us to carry out a task where we’re meeting the aims of a public body in the public interest – for example, delivering a government or local authority service. This is called ‘public task’;
• to carry out a contract we have with you – for example, if you’re an employee we might need to store your bank details so we can pay you. This is called ‘contract’;
• to defend our legal rights – for example, sharing information with our legal advisors if there was a complaint that we gave the wrong advice.

We handle and store your personal information in line with the law – including the General Data Protection Regulation.

You can check our main Citizens Advice Privacy Policy for how we handle most of your personal information.

The following covers how we, as a local charity, handle your information locally in our offices.

How Citizens Advice Test Valley collect your data

We’ll get your permission by asking you to either:

• sign a paper consent form;
• tick a box online;
• give agreement over the phone – if you call our Adviceline, Consumer Service, Debt Advice Project or Extra Help Unit.

Before we ask for your permission, we’ll always explain how we use your information.

What Citizens Advice Test Valley ask for

We’ll only ask for information that’s relevant to your problem. Depending on what you want help with, this might include:

• your name and contact details – so we can keep in touch with you about your case;
• personal information – for example about family, work, or financial circumstances;
• details about services you get that are causing you problems – like energy or post;
• details of items or services you’ve bought, and traders you’ve dealt with;
• information like your gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

lf you don’t want to give us certain information, you don’t have to. For example, if you want to stay anonymous we’ll only record information about your problem and make sure you’re not identified.

How Citizens Advice Test Valley will use your information

The main reason we ask for your information is to help solve your problem. We only access your information for other reasons if we really need to – for example:

• for training and quality purposes;
• to investigate complaints;
• to get feedback from you about our service;
• to help us improve our services.

All advisers and staff accessing data have had data protection training to make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.

Working on your behalf

When you give us authority to act on your behalf, for example to help you with a Universal Credit claim, we’ll need to share information with that third party.

This may be the Local Authority TVBC, Aster, DWP, Andover Advocates or other organisations we work with.

How Citizens Advice Test Valley store your information

Whether you get advice face to face, over the phone, be email or webchat, our adviser will log all your information, correspondence, and notes about your problem into our secure case management system.

Some of your information might also be kept within our secure email and IT Systems.

We keep your information for 6 years. If your case has been subject to a serious complaint, insurance claim or other dispute we keep the data for 16 years.

Our case management systems are hosted within the EEA and wherever possible, the UK.

Most of our trusted partners store their data securely within the European Economic Area (EEA) in line with data protection law.

If you contact us by email we use Office 365 and your email enquiry is attached to our case book system after 5 days.

How Citizens Advice Test Valley share your information

With permission, we might share your information with other organisations to help solve your problem or to monitor the quality of our services.

Organisations we share your data with must store and use your data in line with data protection law.

Sharing information to solve your problem

If you ask us to act on your behalf we might need to share some of your information with other organisations – we’ll always tell you when we do this. For example if we contact your creditors about your debts, we might need to share your name, address and financial details with them.

If we refer you to another organisation for more advice, we might share information about your problem with them so they can help you more quickly.

Contact Citizens Advice Test Valley about your information

If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact our office.

You can contact us to:

• find out what personal information we hold about you;
• correct your information if it’s wrong, out of date or incomplete;
• request we delete your information;
• ask us to limit what we do with your data – for example, ask us not to share it if you haven’t asked us already;
• ask us to give you a copy of the data we hold in a format you can use to transfer it to another service;
• ask us stop using your information.

Ange Moon (Chief Officer)
Telephone: 01264 723641 (Monday to Friday. 8.30am-5.00pm)
Email: co@testvalleycab.org.uk.

Who’s responsible for looking after your personal information?

The national Citizens Advice charity and your local Citizens Advice operate a system called Casebook to keep your personal information safe. This means they’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information that’s stored in our Casebook system.

Each local Citizens Advice is an independent charity, and a member of the national Citizens Advice charity. The Citizens Advice membership agreement also requires that the use of your information complies with data protection law.

You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.