Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) privacy notice

Portsmouth City Council is a registered Data Controller (Registration Number (Z5578313).

We aim to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information in accordance with data protection law.

This privacy notice tells you about how the Council collects and uses personal information. It applies to information we collect so that we can provide crisis payments from the Crisis and Resilience Fund.

For housing payments under the Crisis and Resilience Fund please refer to the Revenues and Benefits service privacy notice as they are responsible for administering these payments. Read the Revenues and Benefits service privacy notice.

We collect information including: name, address and date of birth for you and any partner and children living with you, email address, income, benefit entitlement, eligibility for the crisis payment, bank details to receive payment (cash awards only), and a record of any payment sent.

We also capture information about the presenting crisis and crisis need, which informs award decisions, signposting and referrals.

The Council only uses your information for the purpose of administering Crisis and Resilience Fund crisis payments. This includes financial support, signposting information and referrals into appropriate support services where consent is given.

The Council employ the use of appropriate technical security measures, access controls, staff training, and we ensure that any contractor who processes information on our behalf does so securely.

The general data protection regulation (GDPR) states that the council should not hold personal data longer than is absolutely necessary. Our corporate retention schedule tells you how long we keep the records we work with, what we do with them at the end of that time, and the reasons why we do those things.

You can find out more about it on the corporate retention schedule page.

Portsmouth City Council uses an online form service supplied by Granicus, LLC and Granicus- Firmstep, Ltd.

We may use the Council’s housing benefit information and receive benefit entitlement information from the DWP (shared for the purpose of administering Local Welfare Provision) to assess your eligibility.

We use the DWP Searchlight portal to verify an individual’s DWP benefit and income information.

We also use the Cabinet Office Spotlight system to verify bank account details.

We will share information with either Evouchers Ltd or Edenred (UK Group) if you are receiving your payment in the form of a direct to bank transfer, ATM cash payment, grocery, household or PayPoint cash out voucher. This is limited to name, email address, and phone number if issuing by SMS (text message).

We may be required by law though to disclose your personal information without your consent for the purposes of protecting the council’s legitimate interests (for example to recover debts that are owed to Portsmouth City Council) or for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime/fraud or apprehending and prosecuting offenders (for example to the Police, the Cabinet Office or Department for Work and Pension, other government departments, agencies and/or local authorities or as part of the National Fraud Initiative) or where we have a statutory duty to do so. For more information visit the National Fraud Initiative.

Further information in relation to how you can access your records or exercise your other information rights or make a complaint, then please review the Council Data Protection Privacy Notice.

This privacy notice was last updated April 2026.

If you want to request details of our privacy policy and how we collect and use personal information, you can contact:

Data Protection Officer
Portsmouth City Council
Civic Offices,
Portsmouth,
PO1 2AL

Email: DataProtection@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Telephone: 023 9283 4385