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 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 national 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 Mendip collects your data

We get permission to collect client information with our client permission and consent form.

What Citizens Advice Mendip ask for

To find out what information we ask for, see our national Citizens Advice privacy policy CAM Privacy Policy

How Citizens Advice Mendip use your information

To find out how we use your information, 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’ll need to share information with that third party.

We commonly share information, when acting on your behalf with your consent, with Mendip District Council, Somerset County Council, the DWP and Wessex Water

How Citizens Advice Mendip stores your information

The vast majority of your information is stored on the national Citizens Advice ‘Casebook’ system.

We may also store documents and information securely in our local offices, in our local IT network and on one or more secure cloud-based systems.

How Citizens Advice Mendip shares your information

We only share information, with your specific consent, to funders like, Mendip District Council, Somerset County Council and the DWP Universal Credit for the services we deliver as part of casework or to demonstrate performance on a funding contract.

Contact Citizens Advice Mendip about your information

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

Highfield House, Shape Mendip Campus, Cannards Grave Road, Shepton Mallet. BA4 5BT

Telephone: 01749 34539 (open Monday to Friday 9am-4pm)

Email: SamH@citizensadvicemendip.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, except for reasons where legally necessary

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 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.