Privacy Policy

How we use your personal information

We collect and use information about you to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.

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

When you use our website, we collect a type of data called cookies which tell us what you’re clicking on. Find out more about how we use cookies.

The national Citizens Advice charity and local Citizens Advice are both responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure we follow data protection law. This means we’re a ‘joint data controller’ for your personal information.

The local Citizens Advice will record your personal information on a national computer system. Staff from a different local Citizens Advice can only access your personal information if they have a good reason – for example if you go to them for advice or call our national phone line.

We have rules and controls to stop people accessing or using your information when they shouldn’t.

Tell an adviser if you’re worried about your details being on a national system. We’ll work with you to take extra steps to protect your information – for example by recording your problem without using your name.

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.

Click the link to check our main Citizens Advice policy for how we handle most of your personal information.

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.

These may include:

Warrington Borough Council
Department for Work and Pensions
Creditors, for example banks, utilities or loan companies
Local Housing providers

How Citizens Advice Warrington store your 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.

Some of your information might also be kept within local secure email and IT systems. We use Office 365 for email. Generally, Office 365 products as used by us will mean they are acting as a data processor under our instruction as a data controller. Citizens Advice Warrington has opted into the Model contract clauses and data processing amBefore we share any of your information, we will always obtain your agreement, explain who the information is being shared with and the reason that the information is being shared.endment agreement with Office 365. (Microsoft Online Services Data Protection Addendum (DPA) and the Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement (MOSA), which are incorporated by reference into the Product Terms.)

Where you have given us your agreement and contact details, we, or in some instances a trusted research partner, may contact you to ask you for feedback on the service you received and your overall experience of Citizens Advice.

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

How Citizens Advice Warrington share your information

Before we share any of your information, we will always obtain your agreement, explain who the information is being shared with and the reason that the information is being shared.

What if I have a question about how my information has been used?

You can contact us and ask us:

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 to stop using your information

If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact us at:

Citizens Advice Warrington, The Gateway, 89 Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1SR Tel: 01925 246970.

Email: admin@warrington.cabnet.org.uk

You can read more detailed information about how some of our services use information on our national site: citizensadvice.org.uk/privacy-policy

If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your data, you can make a complaint. Email us at admin@warrington.cabnet.org.uk

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office to raise a concern about how we have used your information.

Web: ico.org.uk

Tel: 0303 123 1113