Privacy Policy

The GAIN Project is provided on behalf of Birmingham City Council Adult Social Care and Public Health by Citizens Advice Mid Mercia in partnership with Age UK Birmingham.

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 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 each Organisation carry out its aims and goals to provide the Service to you. We’ll always explain how we use your information.

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 – 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.  This page covers how we handle your information.

Who is responsible for keeping your personal information safe?

Citizens Advice Mid Mercia and Age UK Birmingham are responsible for providing the GAIN Project across Birmingham, and each Organisation is independently responsible for keeping your personal data safe and making sure data protection law is followed.  Each Organisation is an independent data controller.

Please refer to the table below for the individual Privacy Policy for the Organisation which provides the GAIN Project according to your age group.  Each Privacy Policy informs you of the following:

• how your data is collected
• what information is processed
• how your information is used
• how your information is stored
• how your information is shared
• who to contact with queries about your information
• who is responsible for looking after your information

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