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 UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.
How we use your information
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 UK 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 check if:
- 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.
When we may share your details
We may 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
If you want to request a copy of your personal data, follow HMRC’s subject access request guidance.
If you have any questions
HMRC has appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO), to oversee compliance with its data protection obligations. You can contact us if you have questions about this privacy notice or want to make a complaint.
You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.
GOV.UK may also collect certain information about you.