This notice is for individuals who are liable to pay Council Tax to Cardiff Council
The Council processes certain information about you (known as personal data) on a day-to-day basis to carry out our functions. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and any information we hold will be processed in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act and UK GDPR.
This notice is designed to give you information about any data the Council Tax department holds about you, how they use it, your rights in relation to it and the safeguards that are in place to protect it.
What personal data we hold and how we obtain it
You will usually have to pay Council Tax if you’re 18 or over and own or rent a home. We obtain your personal data when you inform us that you are liable to pay Council Tax at a property in the Cardiff area.
The data that we collect and process for administering Council Tax is:
- Contact details, including name, address, telephone numbers and email address.
- Financial details such as bank account number if you pay council tax by Direct Debit.
There may be circumstances where we require more in-depth information from you which may include one or more of the following:
- Information about your family, dependents, or non-dependents such as where status discounts and exemptions are allowed – e.g., apprentices, students, trainees, school or college leavers, residents of care homes, care providers.
- Information about your health such as where a reduction is being allowed due to a disability or mental impairment.
- Information about your employment and entitlement to Welfare Benefits, such as where debts are being recovered under the powers of a Magistrates Court Liability Order through deductions from earnings or benefits.
- Information regarding any period of time that you have been detained in custody or under the Mental Health Act, where a discount or exemption is being allowed.
How we will use your personal data
We will use your personal information to administer and collect council tax. This may include any of the following:
- Send you Council Tax demand notices.
- Send you payment reminders.
- Process any discounts or exemptions that you may apply for, for example single person discount, student exemptions.
- Process your payments e.g., direct debit, credit or debit card, cash payment.
- Recover any monies owed in line with our legal powers for example take you to court, refer the debt to the bailiffs for collection.
- Deduct payments direct from your employer or social security benefit where we have a court order that enables us to do so.
- Deal with complaints or concerns.
- Identify and detect fraud.
- Communicate with you on behalf of Welsh Government for various initiatives.
Organisations that we may share your personal data with
From time to time, we will share your personal information with advisers and service providers so that they can help us carry out our duties, rights and discretions in relation to council tax. These may include:
Internal Council Services such as:
- Electoral Registration – to confirm residency
- Housing Benefits – to assist in the administration of a Housing Benefit award
- Registrars and Tell us Once – information about people who have recently deceased.
- Community and Children Services – to verify residency for financial support such as Child Care
- Other Council Services – to validate information and provide better services providing we have a basis set out in law.
Government agencies and organisations such as:
- Her Majesties Court Services – to recover unpaid council tax
- The Valuation Tribunal for Wales – to maintain the property valuation list
- The Department for Work and Pensions – to recover unpaid council tax
- The Cabinet Office – for the purposes of the National Fraud Initiative External link opens in a new window
- Office of National Statistics - statistical and statistical research purposes
Payment processing providers:
- Banking Automated Clearing Service (BACS) – to administer direct debit instructions and payments
- Trusted third party suppliers and organisations who provide services on our behalf:
- Tracing bureau – to recover unpaid council tax.
- Enforcement Agents to enforce court orders in relation to unpaid council tax.
- Solicitors – to provide legal expertise in bankruptcy proceedings to recover unpaid council tax
- Printing companies – to print, pack and post council tax documents.
- Software provider – to maintain our council tax systems.
- Data analysis – for purposes of reviewing entitlement to discounts and reliefs.
- Civica UK Ltd - for the administration of Council Tax, including account maintenance and single person discount reviews.
- Transunion - To complete financial and residency checks as part of the council tax discount review activity.
How long we keep your personal data
We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need to in order to fulfil the purpose(s) for which it was collected and for so long afterwards as we consider may be required to deal with any questions or complaints that we may receive, unless we elect to retain your data for a longer period to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
Your rights
You have a right to access and obtain a copy of the personal data that the Council holds about you and to ask the Authority to correct your personal data if there are any errors or it is out of date. In some circumstances you may also have a right to ask the Council to restrict the processing of your personal data until any errors are corrected, to object to processing or to transfer or (in very limited circumstances) erase your personal data.
If you wish to exercise any of these rights or have any queries or concerns regarding the processing of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer as indicated below.
You can obtain further information about these rights from the
Information Commissioner’s Office External link opens in a new window or via their telephone helpline 0303 123 1113.
The legal basis for our use of your personal data
Our lawful basis for processing this information for the above purposes is Article 6 (1) (e) where processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
This is further supported by the need to carry out our official statutory duties and to satisfy our legal obligations under the following legislation:
- Local Government Finance Act 1992
- Part 2, Article 12 of the Local Authorities (Contracting Out of Tax Billing, Collection and Enforcement Functions) Order 1996 as laid down by Statutory Instrument No 1880.
In some circumstances, we will be required to process information regarding an individual’s health. This is classified as special category data and will be processed under Article 9 (2) (g) further supported by the following legislation:
- Disabled Persons Relief (statutory authority - The Council Tax (Reductions for Disabilities) Regulations 1992)
- Exemption/Disregard for severely mentally impaired (statutory authority - The Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992; The Council Tax (Discount Disregards) Order 1992)
- Exemption/Disregard for residents of care and nursing homes (statutory authority - The Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992; The Council Tax (Discount Disregards) Order 1992)
- Exemption/Disregard for care providers (statutory authority - The Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992; The Council Tax (Discount Disregards) Order 1992)
Data Protection Officer
Please contact the Data Protection Officer for further information.
Data Protection Officer
Information Governance Team
County Hall
Atlantic Wharf
Cardiff
CF10 4UW
Updating this notice
We may update this notice periodically. Where we do this, we will inform you of the changes and the date on which the changes take effect.