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

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 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 Cardiff and Vale 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

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

In addition to the methods set out in our main policy, we may receive personal information by our referral partners when they refer you to us for debt, housing or welfare benefit advice. In these circumstances, our partners will ask you for your permission to make the referral and to give your personal information to us.

What Citizens Advice Cardiff and Vale ask for

To find out what information we ask for and how we use your information, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy

How Citizens Advice Cardiff and Vale use your information

We use your information in line with our national policy. Follow the link to 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 may need to share information with that third party.

As a result of offering you our services, we may share information with third parties such as:

• Cardiff Council and Vale of Glamorgan Councils (for example when helping you claim Council Tax Support)
• Department of Work and Pensions (for example when helping you to appeal against refusal of a welfare benefit)
• Duncan Lewis Solicitors
• Howells Solicitors
• Shelter Cymru
• The Speakeasy (to provide specialist advice on debt, housing and welfare benefit issues)

How Citizens Advice Cardiff and Vale store your information

We store your information in line with our national policy.

We store your information electronically on our Casebook case recording system, and we also keep paper copies relating to your enquiry if it is absolutely necessary. All paper records will be destroyed when we close your enquiry.

How Citizens Advice Cardiff and Vale share your information

With your permission, we might share your information with other organisations to help resolve your problem(s). Organisations we share your data with must store and use your data in line with data protection law.

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 and only with your express permission. 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 Cardiff and Vale about your information

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

Telephone: 01446 722812, open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm

Email: administrator@cacv.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 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 website.