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 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.

How Citizens Advice Chesterfield collect your data

Our service collects and retains your information as a client, by asking you to either:

sign a paper permissions and consent form
give agreement over the telephone – if you call our advice line

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

What Citizens Advice Chesterfield 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

If 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 Chesterfield 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 services
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 we may need to share information with relevant third party organisations. For example, when helping you with council tax issues we may need to share information with Chesterfield Borough Council or when helping you with issues regarding your benefits we may need to share information with the DWP.

How Citizens Advice Chesterfield share your information

We only share information with relevant organisations if we have received your consent to do so.

Contact Citizens Advice Chesterfield about your information

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

Julie Astell
Telephone: 01246 209164
Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
Email: julie.astell@chesterfieldcab.co.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.