HSTM90000 - Help to Save: Privacy Notice

HMRC Help to Save Privacy Notice:

The purpose of this notice

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. For the purposes of this document, HMRC will be referred to as ‘we’.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you in accordance with data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.

HMRC only gathers personal information needed to check the eligibility of prospective Help to Save account holders. The Savings (Government Contributions) Act 2017 sets out the legal basis that HMRC relies on to process your personal data. Under GDPR, the legal basis for processing your personal data in these circumstances is Article 6(1)(e), which allows HMRC to process personal data when it is necessary to do so for the purposes of our functions as a government department.

HMRC and National Savings and Investments who are our delivery partner, are jointly responsible for delivering the Help to Save scheme and for deciding how we store and use your personal information.

For a full explanation of how HMRC uses your data read the HMRC Privacy Notice. To find out more about how NS&I uses your personal data, read the NS&I Privacy Notice.

What data we collect

The personal data we collect includes:

  • your name, date of birth and national insurance number
  • your address history for the last 5 years
  • your email address
  • your bank account details

Why we collect your personal data

We collect personal data and information from you, from HMRC internal databases and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to:

  • you are receiving payments for Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit

The data and information we collect will confirm whether you’re eligible to open a Help to Save account. This involves automated decision making, see the relevant section of the HMRC Privacy Notice. If you have been told you’re not eligible for a Help to Save account, you should go to GOV.UK to check the eligibility criteria. If you have done this and you still think you’re eligible, you can contact the Help to Save service on 0300 322 7093.

If you call the Help to Save service, we may monitor or record your call for training or quality assurance purposes.

We may also share your details with other government departments, delivery partners or third party suppliers for the purposes of enabling, assisting or conducting research on the Help to Save scheme, for example, to Research at HMRC

We may also share your details with law enforcement agencies, if the law permits us to do so for the prevention or detection of crime and the protection of public funds.

Keeping your data secure

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information.

We treat the security of your data very seriously. We have strict security standards, and all our staff and other people who process personal data on our behalf get regular training about how to keep information safe.

We have put in place appropriate technical, physical and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect about you.

Your personal information will only be seen by those who have a business or legal need to see it.

Where we use third-party service providers they will only process your personal information on our instructions or with our agreement, and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and the regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

You should prevent the unauthorised or fraudulent use of your details, for example by using secure passwords.

How long we keep your data

We aim to retain your personal information for only as long as it is necessary for us to do so for the purposes for which we are using it and in line with our published records management and retention and disposal policy.

The default standard retention period for HMRC records is 6 years plus current, otherwise known as 6 years + 1. This is defined as 6 years after the last entry in a record followed by first review or destruction to be carried out in the additional current (+ 1) accounting year.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • request access to your personal information
  • request correction of personal information
  • request erasure of information
  • object to processing of personal information

HMRC has a Data Protection Officer who oversees compliance with our data protection obligations. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, contact the Data Protection Officer at advice.dpa@hmrc.gov.uk or write to:

The Data Protection Officer
HM Revenue and Customs
1 Ruskin Square
Dingwall Road
Croydon
CR0 2WF

You can also report a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You can find out more information on how HMRC processes your personal data and your rights here. GOV.UK may also collect certain information about you.