The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is effective from 25 May 2018. This document sets our policy regarding the data we will collect, process, share and other relevant information for you. The information we collect is only done so where we genuinely need it, or where we are required to obtain it to perform our legal and/or contractual obligations.

What is the lawful basis for collecting and processing my data?

You have been referred to Debt Professionals to propose an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), a statutory form of debt relief. An IVA is legislated under the Insolvency Act 1986 (as amended), Insolvency Rules 2016, Money Laundering Regulations 2017, Bribery Act 2010, and other relevant standards such as “Statements of Insolvency Practice”, “Dear IP” and the “IVA Protocol”.

Under the above legislation, we, therefore, have a legal obligation to collect, process, and share your data. However, to ensure you are pleased with your data being used, we will also ask you to consent to your data being used as per the document below before we formally act on your behalf.

What data will Debt Professionals collect from me, and why?

Debt Professionals will collect data from you to allow our Licensed Insolvency Practitioners, and their team to perform their duties in proposing your Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), and managing it if approved by your creditors.

To comply with relevant Insolvency legislation, guidance, and best practice, we will require evidence to assess, analyse, and demonstrate your financial position both before and during the IVA. This will include, but not limited to, obtaining evidence of and keeping copies of:

• Wage slips, contracts of employment, P60s, invoices, tax returns or equivalent.

• Evidence of benefit award from award notices and government documents.

• Bank statements.

• Mortgage, secured loan, rental statement, proof of board payments.

• Hire purchase or lease agreements.

• Creditor statements.

• Passport, Driving license or another photographic ID.

• Other documents to support your financial position.

• Land Registry searches.

• Credit searches.

• Verbal information from you i.e. number and ages of children, your living situation.

• Details of any assets you have i.e. life insurance, shares, savings, life insurance, PPI or other potentially miss-sold products.

• Email, Whatsapp and other instant messaging communications.

• Recordings of telephone conversations between us and you. This is not only to collate data to process your IVA, but for training, monitoring and quality purposes.

How we use your data

Until we contact your creditors regarding your IVA we are acting as your advisor in the reasonable contemplation of an insolvency appointment. During this process, your data will be assessed and analysed to determine whether an IVA is the best debt solution for you. This will involve us conducting a formal call with you to run through your finances and available options.

Should this be an IVA, we will then use all the data you have provided to formulate IVA paperwork to send to your creditors. This is done in the capacity of the Nominee. Over a short period, we will negotiate with your creditors to seek the successful approval of your IVA.

Once approved your IVA will be run in accordance with the terms of the paperwork and we will complete this as your Supervisor. We will require updated data throughout the duration of the IVA and you will be asked for this at various points. This will then be shared with other bodies as appropriate. We will also share your data with government bodies, and carefully selected business parties who will investigate miss-sold financial products. Once your IVA is closed, we will share a final report with creditors

Who will Debt Professionals share my data with?

In the process of proposing and managing your IVA we will share some, or all your data with the following bodies. However, please note that it is extremely rare that any physical evidence you have provided is shared with 3rd parties, rather extracts from our case management software is shared in the form of legal documents that are part of your IVA, or through data extracts.

We will share your data with:

What is a pixel tag? A pixel tag is programming code that can be used to display an image on a web page, but can also be used to transfer an individual’s unique user identification (often in the form of a cookie) to a database and associate the individual with previously acquired information about an individual in a database. This allows Money Advice Limited to track certain web sites an individual visits online.

This list is not exhaustive, and from time to time we may be required to share your data with other bodies i.e. if you sell your property we will need to contact any conveyancing solicitor; however, we will obtain your specific consent in these eventualities.

We will only share your data with organisations outside the European Economic Area (EEA) where we have your express consent. However, we do not envisage that this scenario would arise.

What personal data will we need to collect?

To be able to provide you with advice regarding insolvency solutions we need to collect certain categories of personal data. This will include:

• Contact details – so that we can contact you about and process your enquiry

• The people you owe money to and your property and assets – so we fully understand your financial situation and give you personalised advice that’s tailored to you

• Your Income and expenditure – so that we can accurately work out what you can afford to pay towards your debts and make sure the solution we recommend is the right one for you

• Personal circumstances – such as your employment, living arrangements and financial dependents, so that we can understand and give you advice about how each of the available debt solutions could affect you

• Special personal information – only with your permission and where this is relevant to your financial situation and how a debt solution needs to work for you, or where we have a legal right to do so. With your permission, we may use information from your credit file to confirm certain information, including about your lenders, balances, account numbers, your account, address and insolvency history and details of any county court judgments (CCJ). Your credit file data will be provided by Callcredit Consumer Ltd, and CCJ data by Callcredit Ltd subject to passing their authentication process

Cookies

When using this website, some information may be collected automatically using ‘cookies’. These are small text files that facilitate the processing of your data and enable us to analyse how the website is being used. Cookies can be temporary or permanent.

Temporary cookies form part of the security process while you are using the website; permanent cookies identify the link you used to find our website, check your browser so that we can make sure that our website and services work well with your computer and to help us monitor traffic on our website.

Why are cookies used?

They help visitors. Cookies allow sites to do things like provide personalised content and remember their log-in details and settings. You can turn them off – this won’t stop a website from working, but it might mean it won’t work as well as it could, or that you have to do the same thing more than once.

They help website owners. Cookies tell website owners things like what search engine a visitor used to find the website, how often they’ve visited it, how long they’ve spent on it, and so on.

Recording Calls

We record any telephone calls you make to us or we make to you or any other third party. This is for training, monitoring and quality purposes and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations. Some telephone calls may be observed by staff for training and development purposes.

We may keep a copy of the telephone calls for up to 6 years from the date the telephone call was made.

Your Rights

Access to your personal information

You have the right to request from us a copy of the personal information that we may hold about you. This is often called a “Data Subject Access Request”. You can request this information for free by contacting us as set out below.

Before providing this information to you or to another person or company where you have requested this personal information to be sent to, we may ask for proof of identity or ask sufficient questions to enable us to locate the data and ensure that we’re only providing it where you have given your agreement.

Right to have your personal information corrected

If the personal information we hold about you is incorrect, you have the right to request that we correct this.

Right to stop or limit the processing of the data we carry out

You may request that your personal information is deleted or that we stop processing the information if we’re no longer entitled to process it. There may be occasions where we are unable to delete the data due to our legal or regulatory obligations. We will, however, discuss this with you if you request for your information to be deleted.

Portability

In some cases, you may be able to request for your information to be provided to you or to another company in a format that can be processed electronically by you or the other company. If you want to request this you’ll need to contact us.

Security

We treat the security of your data with the utmost importance. Your data is stored via electronic scans or on our case management software. This data is securely stored on both internal and external servers with the relative level of security to ensure your data is protected. We employ 3rd party contractors who manage our IT security on our behalf and only do so to the highest standard.

When will Money Advice destroy my data?

Insolvency legislation requires that we keep your records for six years post your IVA closing. However, if your IVA is not approved, then we will destroy your data as below:

Your rights regarding your data

GDPR sets outs what rights you have regarding your data. These are outlined below:

The Right to be Informed

This document sets out the relevant privacy information regarding your data.

The Right of Access

You have the right to access the personal data we hold. Should you wish you can request access to your data free of charge, however, we may charge a fee if your request is manifestly unfounded, excessive, or particularly repetitive. We have one month to provide you with access to your data, which would usually be a PDF file of the data we hold.

Should you wish to access your data, please write to [email protected]

The Right to Rectification

You have the right for inaccurate data to be rectified or completed if you feel it is incomplete. You can tell us this verbally, or in writing at the address above. We have one month to work with you to correct the data.

Due to insolvency legislation, the burden also falls on you to ensure full and accurate disclosure of your finances and that there is no material irregularity in the documentation.

The Right to Erasure

You have the “right to be forgotten”, and should you wish this to take place you can either tell us verbally or in writing. We will have one month to comply with your request.

Debt Professionals has set out its position regarding the destruction of data as above. Due to Insolvency regulation, if we are appointed as either your Nominee and Supervisor, you no longer have the right to erasure as we must keep records for six years post your IVA closing. However, if we are not appointed to any of those roles, you can let us know you wish to have your data erased; however, we will destroy it within six months.

The Right to Restrict Processing

Under this right, you can request that we still hold your data, but not use it if any of the following apply:

• You contest the accuracy of our data, and we are working with you to verify it

• You are challenging the lawfulness of how we use your data, and you would like to restrict us using it rather than erase it

• We no longer need the data, but we require it to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim

• You object to us processing your data under Article 21(1); however, we are considering overriding this objection.

If any of these circumstances apply we will still hold your data; however, we will not process it, share it until we have your consent to remove the restriction or have legitimate grounds to override your restriction.

The Right to Data Portability

You have the right for your data to be transferred from one data controller to another. We are required to complete this within one month unless the data is complex. This is usually used in banking transactions.

The Right to Object

As an individual, you have the right to object to your data:

• Being processed for legitimate interests or performing a task in the public interest

• Being used in direct marketing

• Being used for scientific or historic research and statistics

Debt Professionals only processes your data to perform our legal obligations and with your express consent, and we never use it for any of the above scenarios.

Rights relating to automated decision making including profiling

Debt Professionals does not use data in this way.

Other rights

You have the right to withdraw consent at any time. However, if we have been formally appointed as either Nominee or Supervisor we have a legal obligation to retain your data for regulatory purposes.

Contact Us

If you have any queries regarding this policy, please contact us at

Data Protection Officer

Debt Professionals

Debt Professionals is a trading style of Hotpond Media Ltd. Registered in England and Wales (Company number 08487030) Registered Office: 26 Berrycroft Lane, Romiley, Stockport, Cheshire, England, SK6 3AU. Secured Loan Finder is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Reference Number 723662. Secured Loan Finder is registered with the ICO under Registration Number: ZB270402,

26 Berrycroft Lane,

Romiley, Stockport,

Cheshire,

England,

SK6 3AU.

Email: [email protected]

If you are not happy with how we have processed your data in the first instance you should contact us. If you’re not happy with how we have dealt with your complaint you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Officer. Details are at https://ico.org.uk/