data protection

[jingo1]

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on a matter regarding a situation I have found myself in. I'm behind with my Council Tax.. naughty I know but am trying to sort it out. I had a letter from my local Borough Council here in Hampshire informing me that they were sending an attachment of earnings form to my employer. My employer's head office is based in Birmingham. The letter they sent was sent to the manager of a branch of my company in Suffolk. She therefore contacted me having opened the letter. As you can imagine I was not happy to discover that my private business is now all around that particular branch of the company. The letter states exactly how much I owe to the council. Could somebody please tell me if this is in breach of the Data Protection Act??

[Mrs_Pegasus]

In the past I have handled attachment of earnings through my previous work. The details of the attachment is no business of anyones except the personnel dept who need to set it up.

The breach has been made by the manager who has chosen to tell people your private business.

[jingo1]

is it a breach of the act by my council for sending it to a store manager and not to the head office ?

[dannydingbat]

I think you must accept a degree of responsibility for being in this position and forcing this issue. if you had told the council of the correct address and they had ignored it and written to the wrong person at the wrong address, you have a valid complaint. If you left them to guess where to try and get hold of you because of your inaction/ignoring of your debt, you are on your own.

[jingo1]

we know its down to us that we got in to a bit of a mess with debts and have been trying to sort them out the council had the correct address we cant see how they got it wrong and sent it to a store manager and not to payroll at head office

[themas]

If the Council had the right address & didn't use it, it looks like incompetence. If you want to pursue this you could:-

1. Ask the Information Commissioner's Office whether this breached the Data Protection Act.

2. Make a formal complaint to the Council & pursue it to the Local Govt. Ombudsman on grounds of maladministration.

However, do you know for a fact that the Suffolk manager told other people about it? If not, it may not be worth the hassle. If he/she di tell, then you could raise a complaint within your company, but doing so would inevitably mean more people knowing about the situation than do now.

All in all it might be best to just write to the Council asking for an explanation and apology, and then put it behind you.

[dzug]

Not really sure where Suffolk comes into this - are you associated with that particular branch of the company? If you are/were it's a reasonable place to send the letter. Not all companies have payroll in Head Office - a lot contract it out to specialist contractors.

Still, even if the Council accidentally sent it to the wrong part of your company, it is the company employee who misused the information who is in breach of data protection, either deliberately or in ignorance.

[jingo1]

In response to your query dzug.. my payroll dept is in Birmingham and the Council were well aware of this fact.

[jingo1]

As a point of interest... in these days of Identity theft... what would have happened if that letter had gone to someone who was dishonest??? It had all my ID on the letter... my name, address and National Insurance number.. doesn't bear thinking about really

[Berta Mason]

Jingo, I agree with Themas' answer. The Local Authority have a duty to deal with the data in their control in the correct manner. The fact that someone is in arrears does not cancel out that duty.