Privacy policy

At Citizens Advice 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 anyone

We collect and use the details you give us so we can help you. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law. This means it lets us carry out our aims and goals as an organisation. We'll always explain how we use your information.

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 and the Data Protection Act 2018.

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

This page covers how we, as your local charity, handle your information locally in our offices.

How Citizens Advice Citizens Advice North East Lincolnshire collect your data

We always let you decide what you're comfortable telling us, explain why we need your information and keep it confidential. When we keep something you tell us, we:

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

Do I have to give my consent for you to use information about me?

You can decide exactly what information you are happy to tell us. We’ll use the information because we have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do so for the purpose of providing you with advice and carrying out research.

When we ask for more private information about you, like any health conditions or ethnicity, we will need to get your consent. This is because this information is treated in a special way by the law. You can always withdraw this consent and request we remove what you told us.

Some of our specialist services, such as our Money Advice service, are provided on the basis of your consent. We will ask for your consent to use your personal information with these services.

To find out more about how we manage your data, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.

What Citizens Advice North East Lincolnshire ask for

To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.

How Citizens Advice North East Lincolnshire use your information

To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.

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.

Some common third parties include:

The Department of Work and Pensions
North East Lincolnshire Council
Local Housing providers, including Shoreline, Ongo, Lonhurst and Havelock
Focus Adult Social Care
NAViGO

However the other relevant third parties will depend on the issues which we are helping you to resolve.

How Citizens Advice North East Lincolnshire store your information

Whether you get advice face to face, over the phone, by email or chat, our adviser will log all your information, correspondence, and notes about your problem into our secure case management systems. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law. This means it lets us carry out our aims and goals as an organisation.

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.

There might be other places we store your information, depending on how you accessed our advice.

If you contact us via email

A copy of your information will be kept within our secure email and IT systems.

To find out how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy.

How Citizens Advice North East Lincolnshire share your information

With your permission, we might share your information with other organisations so we can:

help solve your problem - for example, if you ask us to contact your creditors we might need to share your name, address and financial details with them
refer you quickly to another organisation for more advice, if relevant
monitor the quality of our services

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

There might be specific organisations we share your information with, depending on what service you access.

If we're concerned about yours or someone else's safety

If something you've told us makes us think you or someone you know might be at serious risk of harm, we could tell the police or social services - for example if we think you might hurt yourself or someone else.

Getting feedback on our service

With your permission, we'll share your contact details with our trusted research partner so they can contact you for feedback on your experience with us. We use different research partners depending on how you access our services.

Contact Citizens Advice North East Lincolnshire about your information

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

Telephone: 01472 252500, open Monday to Friday 9am-4pm

Email: info@advicenel.org.uk

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

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 the 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 website.