Privacy

Introduction

Talking Money is committed to protecting your privacy and security. This notice explains how and why we use your personal data, to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information.

Questions?

Any questions you have in relation to this privacy notice or how we use your personal data should be sent to mail@talkingmoney.org.uk or addressed to The Data Officer, Talking Money, 1 Hide Market, West Street, St Philips, Bristol BS2 0BH

What is personal data?

Personal data is information that can be used to help identify an individual, such as name, address, phone number or email address.

The policy in brief

Here is a brief summary:

  • We collect personal data (as outlined above) to be able to work on behalf of our clients, helping them with their money worries, to fundraise for our work and for administration, research and analysis
  • We do our very best to keep personal information safe and secure
  • We only share data where we are required by law or with carefully selected partners who do work for us or fund the work that we do. We never sell your data and we will never share it with another company or charity for marketing purposes.
  • We will only retain your data for as long as it is required.
  • These are the basics, but you can read the full Privacy Policy here.

What information we collect and why?

It is your choice what information you share with us, however if you do choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services.

We will only collect personal information where this is strictly necessary for legitimate organisational purposes;

We collect only the minimum personal information required for these purposes

We may also need to share your data with other organisations or partner agencies in order to advance your case.

Keeping your information safe and secure

We place a great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information associated with our supporters, clients and staff. We have security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control.

For more detail on our legal basis for processing see Annex 2.

Sharing your information – Clients

We collect information about you so we can help you with advice or other kinds of support. If we’re working on your case, we may need to contact other organisation to help resolve issues, get more information, or share information with them to advance your case.

Our Funders

We rely on funding from various sources to provide our free advice services and are required to share some information with our funders. The information we share is demographic data such as age, gender, disability, employment status etc. This data enables us and our funders to understand who is using our services and helps to ensure services are delivered and directed to those in need and where gaps in service delivery are identified; help us to improve our services to meet the needs of clients.

Research and Evaluation

Our funders sometimes engage companies to undertake specific research and evaluation of the work that is done with their funding. This is very important work as it helps us and funders to plan services, develop new ways of working to meet the needs of clients and to look at your experience of getting advice from us and how it has helped you.

You do not have to give permission for research or evaluation, but we hope you do because this helps us to keep improving our services.

Quality Auditors

We are obliged to have Quality Audits in order to maintain our Advice Quality Standard to ensure that the quality of the advice we give meets high standards. These audits are undertaken by external agencies. The processes involve the auditors having to view a selection of case files to check the work that is being done. We will ask you to give your consent for your case potentially being included in such a list.

Partners who share your data with us

Talking Money is the Lead Organisation for the Money Advice West Partnership, which is funded by the Money Advice Service and we work with advice agencies across the South West to deliver debt advice services. These partners regularly share some personal data with us about their clients. We use this data to report to the funder, the Money Advice Service. While we hold the data, we will keep it securely on our systems. A limited number of our staff members will be able to access this data, and we will share this with the Money Advice Service via their secure platform.

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 comply with 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

How we’ll store your information – Clients

We’ll store the record of your case in a secure case management system, which is only accessed by us. Paper copies of your information may also be stored securely and accessed by staff and volunteers of Talking Money.

We are obliged to keep your personal data and a record of the work we have undertaken for you for six (6) years in order to meet our insurance obligations, since people who have received advice from us have 6 years from the date of the closure of their case to make a complaint about the service or to issue a claim.

How we’ll store your information – Staff

When you apply for a job with Talking Money, your personal data will be collated in order to monitor the progression of your application.  Where we need to share your data – such as gathering references, obtaining a Disclosure and Barring Services/Disclosure Scotland check (depends on the role) or a prison clearance (depends on the role) – you will be informed beforehand, unless the disclosure is required by law.  These checks are only done after a position has been offered only to the successful candidate.

Once you have taken up employment with Talking Money, we will compile a file relating to your employment. 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 Talking Money has ended, we will retain the file for six years and then delete it from our files unless you request for it to be deleted before this time.

Access to your information and correction

You have the right to make a Subject Access Request to ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email or write to us at the following, specifying that you are making a Subject Access Request: mail@talkingmoney.org.uk or addressed to The Data Officer, Talking Money, 1 Hide Market, West Street, St Philips, Bristol BS2 0BH.

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate.

Your rights

The Data Protection Act gives you certain rights over your data and how we use it. These include:

  • a right of access to a copy of the information comprised in your personal data;
  • a right to object to processing that is likely to cause or is causing damage or distress;
  • a right to prevent processing for direct marketing;
  • a right to object to decisions being taken by automated means;
  • a right in certain circumstances to have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
  • a right to claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Act.

To find out more about what these rights mean for you, refer to the Information Commissioner’s website: https://ico.org.uk/

Other websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated in August 2022. See here for our full privacy policy.

Complaints policy

Talking Money has a written complaints procedure.  You can find out more information on this by asking any member of staff, or by visiting our website here.