Privacy policy | Council Tax Helpline

Who we are

Council Tax Helpline (counciltaxhelpline.co.uk) is a trading style of Simply Quote Comparison Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 15008284. Registered office: Sentinel House, Ancells Business Park, Harvest Crescent, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UZ.

Simply Quote Comparison Ltd is the data controller for the personal information collected through this website. That means we decide how and why it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration number ZB659587.

The Council Tax Helpline service is provided on our behalf by Complete 2 Financial Solutions Ltd, company number 15167030.

To ask anything about your personal information, or to use any of your rights, email dataprotection@simplyquote.co.uk, or write to us at the address above.

What we collect

When you use the online check or call us

Contact details: your name, phone number and email address
Your council tax situation: where you live (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland), your council, what stage the debt has reached, roughly how much you owe, and whether enforcement agents or sheriff officers are involved and which firm
Your finances: your work situation, roughly what comes in and goes out each month, and whether you are behind with other bills or debts
Your preferences: the best time to call you
Anything you tell us when we speak to you, and our notes of those conversations

We do not ask for your bank details or a copy of your credit file.

If you start the online check but do not finish it

Your answers are saved in your browser as you go, so you do not lose them. If you give us a phone number or email address and then leave before sending your answers, the answers you have given so far are sent to us, so that we can contact you to see whether you still need help. We tell you this before you start.

When you visit the website

Technical information such as your IP address and browser type, recorded by our hosting provider to keep the site running and secure
Anonymous visit statistics. We use Ahrefs Web Analytics, which does not use cookies and does not collect personal data. It tells us which pages are read, not who reads them
Measurement through Google. We use Google Tag Manager to load Google measurement tools, set so they do not store cookies on your device. Google receives technical information such as your IP address and the page you are on
The page you came from. When you start the online check from one of our guides, we record which guide, so we know which pages help people

See our cookies page for what is stored on your device.

Information about other people

If you tell us about other people in your household, for example a partner who is also named on the bill, please make sure they are happy for you to do so.

Information about your health or circumstances

We do not ask about your health. If you choose to tell us about a health condition, a disability, or something else that makes your situation harder, we will only use it to help you, for example to explain your circumstances to your council, and only with your permission.

How we use it

Why we use your information	Our lawful basis
To respond to your enquiry, call you back and help with your council tax	Taking steps at your request, and our legitimate interest in providing the service you asked for
To contact you if you left the online check part way through	Our legitimate interest in making sure people who need help get it. You can ask us to stop at any time
To speak to your council or an enforcement firm on your behalf	Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time
To introduce you to a provider of a debt solution you have chosen	Your consent
To keep records of what was said and agreed	Our legitimate interest in providing a reliable service, and to meet our legal obligations
To deal with complaints and legal claims	Our legitimate interests, and our legal obligations
To understand how the website is used and improve it	Our legitimate interest. The statistics are anonymous
To keep the website secure and prevent misuse	Our legitimate interest

We do not use your information to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

We do not sell your personal information.

We only share your information with the people who need it to help you, or to run the service:

Complete 2 Financial Solutions Ltd, who provide the Council Tax Helpline service on our behalf. Your answers go to them so that their advisers can call you back and help you.
Your council, and any enforcement agents or sheriff officers, when we deal with them on your behalf, and only with your permission.
Providers of debt solutions, such as a debt management plan provider or an insolvency practitioner, if you decide to go ahead with a solution they provide, and only with your permission.
Service providers who run the systems we use, under contract and only on our instructions. These include our website hosting provider, our email delivery provider, and the case management system used to handle enquiries.
Google, which provides Google Tag Manager and the measurement tools it loads on this website. See our cookies page.
Professional advisers, such as lawyers and auditors, where needed.
Regulators, courts and law enforcement, where the law requires it.

We will not pass your details to anyone for marketing without your separate, specific consent.

Where your information is stored

We aim to store and process your personal information within the UK. Some of our service providers, such as our hosting and email delivery providers, may process data outside the UK. Where they do, we make sure the safeguards required by UK data protection law are in place, such as the UK government’s adequacy regulations or approved contract terms.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that do not go ahead: usually up to 12 months from the last time we were in contact
Answers from an unfinished online check: usually up to 12 months
If we help you: usually up to 6 years after our work for you ends, so we can deal with any questions or complaints, and meet our legal obligations
Anonymous website statistics: these contain no personal information

When information is no longer needed, it is securely deleted.

How we keep it safe

The website uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS), so what you type into the online check is protected on its way to us. Access to your information is limited to the people who need it, and our service providers are required to keep it secure.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

Be informed about how your information is used, which is what this page is for
See a copy of the information we hold about you
Have it corrected if it is wrong or incomplete
Have it deleted, in some circumstances
Restrict how we use it, in some circumstances
Object to us using it, including where we rely on our legitimate interests, for example contacting you about an unfinished enquiry
Withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it
Data portability: receive the information you gave us in a format you can take elsewhere, in some circumstances

To use any of these rights, email dataprotection@simplyquote.co.uk or write to us. It is free, and we will usually respond within one month. We may need to confirm who you are before we act.

Complaints about how we use your information

Please tell us first, so we can put it right. If you are still unhappy, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Website: ico.org.uk
Phone: 0303 123 1113
Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Changes to this policy

We will update this page if the way we use personal information changes. The date it was last reviewed is shown at the bottom.