Privacy & Cookies

Citizens Advice Newcastle is a local charity which helps thousands of people every year, providing the advice they need for the problems they face, and campaigning on big issues when their voices need to be heard. We value diversity, champion equality and challenge inequality and injustice. We promote the advancement of education, the protection and preservation of health, and the relief of poverty, sickness and distress.

To do our work, we collect and process personal data about people who ask us for advice, guidance, information and support, or support us as volunteers or with financial donations. We are committed to protecting your privacy and we take this responsibility very seriously. We only ask for the information we need. We always let you decide what your 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 good reason
• only share what is necessary and relevant
• dont sell it to anyone

We handle and store your personal information in line with data protection law.

This statement outlines what data we collect, how we may use it, how we protect it, and what your rights are.

This notice covers any data we collect from you during your contact with Citizens Advice Newcastle. This may be via:

• Any paper forms you use
• Verbal information you give us
• Forms on our website or online surveys
• Web chat, e-mail or social media
• Photographs, videos or audio recordings

References to “we” and “us” mean Citizens Advice Newcastle, registered charity number 1135396, registered company limited by guarantee number 2114435. Our registered address is 4th Floor, City Library, 33 New Bridge Street West, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8AX. We are registered with the Information Commission: Ref. No. Z206 7736.

If you have any questions, please phone AdviceLine, 08082787823 or e-mail us: citycab@newcastlecab.org.uk

We regularly check this notice to keep it up-to-date. We recommend that you read this page to ensure that you are happy with any changes we might have made.

This privacy policy was updated on 22 February 2024.

Why we collect your data:

• We only collect the personal information we need to enable us to give you the advice you need to help you with your problems. This information may include:
• Personal details required to help you with the advice service you need or have been referred to. This usually includes your name and address, date of birth, employment, housing, family, lifestyle, financial and health information.
• Recording of personal details shared during conversations with our national AdviceLine
• Data needed for job or volunteering applications
• Data needed for our surveys, research and campaigns
• Gift Aid information for donations to Citizens Advice Newcastle
• Information needed to improve our services.

How we use your data:

If you are receiving advice, information, guidance or support from us, we need to process your data to do this.

The national Citizens Advice charity and Citizens Advice Newcastle are both responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure we follow data protection law.  This means we're a 'joint data controller' for your personal information. We will keep all your case information, including notes, letters, and information which you give to us about you, in a confidential record specific to you. We use a client relationship management system (CRM) CASEBOOK to support all our advice, guidance and support. This enables us to keep the information which you provide to us and track the history and relevant details of your case(s), so we can provide you with appropriate and accurate advice and support. We are very careful about information security. No one is allowed access to our system or files without the appropriate authorisation, and only then if it is in order to provide the service or other purpose set out in this notice.

Tell an adviser if you are worried about your details being on a national system.  We will work with you to take extra steps to protect your information - for example by recording your problem without using your name.

When you call AdviceLine for advice, your call is recorded. This is used for training, quality assurance, complaint investigations and to improve the service we provide. You are informed about the recording before any data collection occurs.

To ensure that our services meet high quality standards, client files are sometimes checked by our quality assurance staff. Files may also be checked by external auditors if the work we do is funded by another organisation, such as the Money and Pensions Service. All auditors are bound by strict confidentiality policies.

We may use your data for statistical reports. These statistics will be anonymised so that no individuals can be recognised in them.

We will only process your data for the following purposes, and with your consent:

• Communications made to third parties on your behalf, including creditors, debtors and statutory bodies;
• Citizens Advice Newcastle service questionnaires
• Citizens Advice Newcastle research and campaigns

We use Microsoft Office and Cloud products for our internal office use. This means that internal documents and information generated by Citizens Advice Newcastle are stored in cloud services which are hosted within the European Economic Area (EEA).

When we use your information without permission

At times we might use or share your information without your permission. We'll only do this if there's a legal basis for it. This could include situations where we have to use or share your information:

• to follow the law, called 'legal obligation' - for example, if a court orders us to share information
• to protect someone's life, called 'vital interests' - for example, sharing information with a paramedic if a client was unwell at our office
• to carry out our aims and goals as an organisation, called 'legitimate interests' - for example, to create anonymous case studies and statistics for our national research
• for us to carry out a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law, called 'public task' - for example the Consumer Service
• to carry out a contract we have with you, called 'contract' - for example, if you're an employee we might need to store your bank details so we can pay you
• to defend our legal rights - for example, to resolve a complaint that we gave the wrong advice

Retention of your data:

We will only store your information for a specific amount of time. This may depend on the law or specific regulations which apply to it, such as financial requirements, health and safety regulations or employment law. We may also retain it to comply with any contractual obligation we might have such as government contracts, or if we have a business case, such as research. For business case data, we will anonymise it so that no individual can be identified. Once the data retention period has expired, the information will be confidentially disposed of or permanently deleted.

Disclosure of your personal data:

We will not, without your consent, supply any of your personal data to any third party except where:

• The transfer is to a secure data processor, carrying out data processing on our behalf;
• We are required to do so by law enforcement or regulatory bodies where this is required or allowed under the relevant legislation.

If we are asked to share your data with other support services, funders or researchers, we will make sure you are informed and we will obtain your consent to share your data. We will make sure that your details are safe, secure and only used for the limited purpose for which you have provided them to us.

We will never share or sell your personal data to a third party organisation for marketing, fundraising or campaigning purposes.

Use of data processors:

We use third party companies to manage our IT systems, phones, website, and payroll. We actively screen these companies to maximise the protection of your privacy and security. They are only permitted to use the data in accordance with the Data protection Act 1998, under strict instructions from Citizens Advice Newcastle.

Your rights:

• You have the right, under the Data Protection Act 1998, to know what information we hold about you and to ask, in writing, to see your records. This is a Subject Access Request.
• We will supply this information to you within one calendar month of your request.
• We will not charge you for this
• You are entitled to change your consent, update your details, or unsubscribe from our communications at any point. You can do this by contacting our Customer Service Staff via:
  • AdviceLine 08082787823
  • E-mail: citycab@newcastlecab.org.uk
  • By post: Citizens Advice Newcastle, 4th Floor, City Library, 33 New Bridge Street West, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8AX
  • In person by visiting us at the above address, 10.00am – 12.00 Monday – Friday.

If you make any changes to your consent, we will update your record as soon as we possibly can. Please note that this may mean that we are unable to give you any further advice, and will be unable to carry out any activities on your behalf, as you may have previously consented.

Applying for a job or volunteering with us:

When you apply for a job, or to volunteer with us, your personal data will be collated so that we can monitor progress with your application and monitor the effectiveness of our recruitment systems. Where we need to share your data, such as for obtaining references or obtaining a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) statement, you will be informed in advance, unless the disclosure is required by law. These checks are only carried out for the successful candidate(s) once a position(s) have been offered. On our application forms, you are asked to complete the referee details, including a tick box for permission to contact your referee. Is this has been ticked, and a role offered, we will automatically send out reference requests. If not, we will contact the successful candidate for their permission first.

Personal data given by unsuccessful applicants is held for 12 months after the recruitment exercise is complete for that particular vacancy. If, within this time, we feel that there is another suitable vacancy available for a particular applicant(s) we will contact them. However, all applicants can ask us to remove their data before this time if they do not want us to retain it.

Once you have taken up a post with us, we will compile a confidential personnel file for you. The information contained in this will be kept secure and will only be used for purposes directly relevant to your employment. Once your employment with us has ended, we will retain the file in accordance with the requirements of our retention schedule and then delete it from our files.

Once you have commenced volunteering with us, we will compile a confidential volunteer file for you. The information contained in this will be kept secure and will only be used for purposes directly relevant to your volunteering. Once your volunteering with us has ended, we will retain the file for a maximum of six months and then delete it from our records.

Cookies:

A cookie is a small data file which is downloaded from a website to your computer to make the site easier to use. For example, it may store details that you submit to the site, such as your personal settings or your location, so you don’t have to provide the information again.

Using cookies does not allow us to identify users personally. We will only store information which you specifically give us permission to use.

Our website uses a small amount of cookies to let us know how people interact with our website, and how we can improve our services to our users. The information we gather in this way is completely anonymous, and visitors to our website cannot be identified.

We use some tools on our pages from social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. Any information used via these tools is not shown to us, and we don’t store any information from them. Please refer to each site’s own privacy policies for more information about this.

Storing information during your visit:

When you visit the Citizens Advice Newcastle website, you may submit information which you want the site to remember during your visit. This information is only stored in a cookie during the time that you are on our site. We will only store it elsewhere when you give us permission to do so and this will be done via our secure systems.

Controlling and deleting cookies from your computer:

All web browsers allow you to manage which cookies you accept, reject and delete. You can usually find these controls in the “Preferences” or “Tools” menu. More information about these is available here: http://wwwaboutcookies.org.

Complaints:

If you have a complaint about the way we have handled your data, or related matter, you can do this by contacting our Customer Service Staff, as detailed above.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

• By e-mail: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/
• By phone: helpline on 0303 123 1113
• By post: ICO, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF