Disclaimer

Community Advice Antrim & Newtownabbey (CAAN) has tried to ensure that the information on this website is accurate. However, CAAN will not accept liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on this website. CAAN endeavours to provide a service of the highest quality. However, we cannot guarantee that our service will be uninterrupted or error-free. We are not responsible for claims brought by third parties arising from your use of this website.

CAAN assumes no responsibility for the contents of linked websites. The inclusion of any link should not be taken as endorsement of any kind by CAAN, of the linked website or any association with its operators. Further, we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

Copyright

Material on this website, including text and images, is protected by copyright. It may not be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Prior written consent of the copyright holder must be obtained for any other use of material. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with CAAN and other copyright owner(s) as specified. No part of this site may be distributed or copied for any commercial purpose.

Privacy Policy

At CAAN, 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

We handle and store your personal information in line with data protection law.

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

Who’s responsible for keeping your personal information safe

CAAN is responsible for keeping your personal information safe and making sure we comply with data protection law. This means we’re a data controller for your personal information.

CAAN is an independent charity and a member of AdviceNI.

If you’ve used Community Advice Antrim & Newtownabbey

Our privacy policy will tell you most of what you need to know about what happens to your personal information.

What we do with your information

How we handle your personal information depends on how you interact with us.

When you get advice from an adviser

We collect and use the details you give us so we can help you. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law. This means it lets us carry out our aims and goals as an organisation. We’ll always explain how we use your information.

If you’ve been referred to us from another advice charity, they’ll send us your information using a referral form. They’ll get your permission before sending us your information.

What information we ask for

We’ll only ask for information that’s relevant to your problem. Depending on what you want help with, this might include:

• your name and contact details – so we can keep in touch with you about your case
• personal information – for example about family, work, or financial circumstances, or if you’re vulnerable or at risk of harm
• details about services you get that are causing you problems – like access to benefits
• details of items or services you’ve bought and traders you’ve dealt with
• information like your gender, ethnicity or marital status

We occasionally ask for details about someone else like a carer or your partner so we can deal with an enquiry. We’ll only do this if we have a legitimate interest in the information, or we need it to protect someone’s life.

If you don’t want to give us certain information, you don’t have to.

We’ll always ask for your permission to store information about your:

• health conditions
• ethnic origin
• religion
• trade union membership
• sexual orientation

You can withdraw your permission at any time – known legally as withdrawing consent. Tell us what personal information you don’t want us to store and we’ll delete it.

How we use your information

The main reason we ask for your information is to help solve your problem.
We only access your information for other reasons if we really need to – for example:

• for training and quality purposes
• to investigate complaints
• to get feedback from you about our services
• to help us improve our services

All advisers and staff accessing data have had data protection training to make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.

Understanding people’s problems

We use some information to create statistics about who we’re helping and what problems are the most common. This information is always anonymised – you can’t be identified.

We share these with funders, regulators, government departments and publicly on our reports, social media and press releases.

The statistics also inform our policy research, campaigns, or media work.

When we share your information with other organisations

With your permission, we might share your information with other organisations so we can:

• help solve your problem – for example, if you ask us to contact your creditors we might need to share your name, address and financial details with them
• refer you quickly to another organisation for more advice or support, if relevant
• monitor the quality of our services

Organisations we share your data with must store and use your data in line with data protection law.

There might be specific organisations we share your information with, depending on what service you access.

If we’re concerned about yours or someone else’s safety

If something you’ve told us makes us think you or someone you know might be at serious risk of harm, we could tell the police or social services – for example if we think you might hurt yourself or someone else.

Storing your information – if you contact us online, by phone or face to face

Whether you get advice face to face, over the phone, by email or chat, our adviser will log all your information, correspondence, and notes about your problem into our secure case management systems. We have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do this under data protection law. This means it lets us carry out our aims and goals as an organisation.

Some of your information might also be kept within our secure email and IT systems.

We keep your information for 6 years. If your case has been subject to a serious complaint, insurance claim or other dispute we keep the data for 16 years.

Our case management systems are hosted within the UK.
Most of our trusted partners store their data securely within the UK or European Economic Area (EEA) in line with data protection law.

There might be other places we store your information, depending on how you accessed our advice.

If you contact us for email advice

We’ll store your email advice request form in our case management systems – this is kept for 6 years.

We use this data to improve the advice we give you. We also use it to research the needs of our users. This helps us make sure people in different areas and using different devices and systems can use our website and chat service.

Any emails between you and your adviser are stored within the CAAN email system where the adviser is based.

If you tell us sensitive details about yourself, we’ll ask for your permission to use and store them. This includes your:

• health conditions
• ethnic origin
• religion
• trade union membership
• sexual orientation

We can store this information under the Data Protection Act 2018 because we use it to give you counselling, advice and support.

If you get advice over the phone

When you call, you’ll hear a recorded message telling you how we use and store your information – you can let the adviser know if you disagree.

Contact us about your information

You can contact us at any time and ask us:

• what information we’ve stored about you
• to change or update your details
• to delete your details from our records

If you want to make a complaint

If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your data, you can make a complaint.

Applying for a job or to be a volunteer

When you apply, we collect your personal information through your application form, interview or references so we can process your application.

If you’re offered a role, where applicable, we may ask you to to fill out an AccessNI Disclosure online request as part of mandatory background checks. This form does ask for some personal information as part of the background check process. These forms are stored and processed securely and confidentially by Volunteer Now and AccessNI.

Other than AccessNI process, we don’t share your information with external organisations – it’s only shared internally so that we can review your application.

What information we ask for

We only ask for information which is relevant to the role you’re applying for.
We’ll collect personal details such as name, address, telephone number and email address, previous job history and experience, qualifications, and any support needs you may have.

We’ll also ask for diversity information like your gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. You don’t have to tell us this – if you do, it’s always anonymised.

We might collect other information depending on whether you’ve applied for a staff or volunteer role.

You’ve applied for a staff role

If we offer you a position, we’ll ask for:

• references for your previous and current work
• proof of your right to work in the UK, like a valid UK passport or visa
• your national insurance number and P45
• your bank details, so we can pay you

Once the AccessNI check is completed and you’ve received your certificate, we’d expect you to share this information with us as part of the background check process.

This information would include your name, date of birth, place of birth, gender, position applied for and anything else disclosed on your AccessNI check.

You’ve applied for a volunteer role

If we offer you a volunteering position, we’ll ask your referees about your previous and current work and experience.

If you’re offered a role, where applicable, we may ask you to to fill out an AccessNI Disclosure online request as part of mandatory background checks. This form does ask for some personal information as part of the background check process. These forms are stored and processed securely and confidentially by Volunteer Now and AccessNI.

Other than AccessNI process, we don’t share your information with external organisations – it’s only shared internally so that we can review your application.

This information would include name, date of birth, place of birth, gender, position applied for and anything else disclosed on your DBS check.

How we use your information

We’ll use the information you give us to decide whether or not you’ve got the right skills for the role.

We’ll use the demographic information to make sure we’re employing a diverse workforce and volunteer community.

Staff who access your information have had information protection training to make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.

Storing your information

We keep your information securely on our internal systems.

Contact us about your data

You can contact us at any time and ask us:

• what information we’ve stored about you
• to change or update your details
• to delete your details from our records

If you want to make a complaint

If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your data, you can make a complaint

When you make a complaint about our service

If you want to find out more about how we use your personal information, you can email our data protection officer at depf@advicean.com.

You can find out more about your data rights on the Information Commissioner’s website.

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’
• 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