Privacy notice - Debt Management Respite Scheme (Breathing Space)

Middlesbrough Council have a statutory duty to give individuals who owe debt to the council space and time to seek the advice they need, and give them the time and protections necessary to improve their financial health.

We collect information about you directly from the insolvency service and debt advisors. This information includes names, dates of birth, address, email address, national insurance number, financial details and health information.

We use personal data where we have a ‘legal obligation’ to do so. We use special category data where there is a ‘substantial public interest’ such as statutory and government. The law that requires or permits us to use this data is The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020.

We use your personal information to place a hold on any enforcement action (attachment of earnings and attachment of universal credit can continue in line with breathing space regulations) and contacting you in relation to debts owed to the council and freezing most interest and charges on your debt. We will also advise your debt advisor of any additional debts owed to council that were not originally included within the breathing space.

We share your personal information where we have a business need or the law requires us to do so across internal service areas, with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), enforcement agents and your debt advisors.

We use the following measures to ensure that your personal data is secure: data protection and security policies, information security incident reporting, data and device encryption, system and data access controls, user accounts and passwords, physical and environmental security, staff vetting practices, staff training and awareness, data back-ups, ICT network penetration testing, and business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

We will only keep your data for as long as necessary and in line with our retention and disposal procedures.

No, your personal data is processed and stored only in the UK.

We will not use this personal data for any direct marketing purposes

Your Information Rights are set out in law and, subject to some exceptions, you have the:

• Right to rectification - to ask for information to be corrected
• Right to erasure - to have your personal data deleted
• Right to object - to how your data is used
• Right to restriction - to request limits on how your data is used
• Right to portability - to request that we move your data to another organisation
• Right of subject access - to request a copy of data the Council holds about you

If you have any concerns 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. Visit the website of the Information Commissioner's Office.

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice or your information rights, please contact:

The Data Protection Officer
Middlesbrough Council
PO Box 500, Middlesbrough, TS1 9FT
Phone: 01642 245432
Email: dataprotection@middlesbrough.gov.uk