Privacy notice

1. Who we are

The data controller is David Matthew Walker, trading as AttendanceAllowanceHelp.co.uk. The data controller decides how your personal information is used and is responsible for looking after it.

• Address: Suite 1, Read House, 5 Cross Street, Whitehaven, Cumbria, CA28 7BX
• Email: hello@attendanceallowancehelp.co.uk
• Phone: 01946 758199
• Information Commissioner’s Office registration number: ZC211475

In this notice, “we”, “us” and “our” mean David Matthew Walker trading as AttendanceAllowanceHelp.co.uk. “You” means the person claiming, and anyone who contacts us on their behalf.

2. What we collect

Contact details

• Your name, address, phone number and email address.
• If a family member or friend is helping you, their name and contact details too.
• The best times to call you.

Information for your claim

• Your date of birth and National Insurance number.
• Your health conditions, disabilities, medicines and treatments.
• The help you need day to day and at night, and any falls or accidents.
• The names and contact details of your GP, hospital or other health professionals.
• Details of any care home stay, hospital stay, or other benefits you receive, where the claim form asks for them.
• Your answers to the “Check if you qualify” questions, if you ask for a call back.

Payment information

• Your invoice number, the amount paid and the date. If you pay by card, we also receive the name and email address used to pay. We never see your card details (see section 8).

Things you tell us

• Messages, emails, letters and anything you send us, such as copies of your DWP decision letter.
• Recordings of our phone calls (see section 6).

3. Where it comes from

Most of it comes from you, when you phone us, fill in a form on this website, or send us an email or letter. Sometimes it comes from a family member, friend or carer who contacts us for you. If you give us information about someone else, please make sure they know and are happy for you to do this.

When the DWP writes to you about your claim, you may choose to share that letter with us.

4. Why we use it, and the legal reasons

Data protection law says we must have a lawful reason for using your information. Here is what we use it for, and the reason that applies.

What we use it for	Legal reason
Replying to your enquiry, calling you back, and checking whether you may qualify.	Taking steps you have asked for before we agree to work together (contract).
Preparing your Attendance Allowance application and sending it to the DWP.	Carrying out our agreement (contract). For health information, your explicit consent (see section 5).
Sending your invoice and recording your payment.	Carrying out our agreement (contract), and keeping business records the law requires (legal obligation).
Recording phone calls so we get your details right, and so there is a record of what we agreed.	Carrying out our agreement (contract).
Sending you a reminder, if you asked us to, when it may be time to apply.	Your consent.
Dealing with complaints or legal claims.	Our legitimate interest in running our business properly and protecting our legal position.

We will never use your information for marketing, and we will never sell it.

5. Health information

Information about your health is called “special category data”. The law gives it extra protection. We can only prepare an Attendance Allowance claim if we know about your health and the help you need, so we ask for your explicit consent to use it.

We ask for this consent through the tick box on our website forms, and again at the start of our phone call before any work begins. We only use your health information to prepare and submit your claim.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by phoning or emailing us. If you do, we will stop working on your claim. This doesn’t affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

6. Phone calls

Our phone calls are recorded so that we get your details exactly right, and so there is a clear record of what we agreed, including your agreement to our terms before any work starts. Our phone line and call recordings are provided by SecondRing.

Call recordings are kept in the same way as the rest of your information (see section 11). You can ask for a copy of a recording of your call.

7. Who we share it with

We only share your information when we need to, and only with:

• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), when we send your application, with your agreement.
• SecondRing, who provide our phone line and call recording.
• Google Workspace, where our email and files, including documents for your claim, are held.
• Netlify, who host this website and receive the forms you fill in on it.
• Stripe, who process card payments, as explained in section 8.
• AI assistant tools, as explained in section 9.
• HMRC, the police, a court or other official bodies, but only if the law requires it.

These service providers act on our instructions. They are only allowed to use your information to provide their service to us, and they must keep it safe.

8. Card payments

If you pay your invoice by card, the payment is processed by Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.). You enter your card details, name and email address on Stripe’s secure payment page, and Stripe uses them to take the payment.

We receive your name, email address, the amount paid and your invoice number, so we can match the payment to your invoice. We never see or receive your card details.

You can read how Stripe looks after your information in Stripe’s privacy policy.

9. AI assistant tools

We may use AI assistant tools to help us read, organise and reply to enquiries, and to help with the wording of documents. A person always checks the results. No decisions about you are made by a computer. Every decision about whether we can help, and everything that goes into your claim, is made and checked by a person.

10. Information stored outside the UK

Some of our service providers, such as Google, Netlify and Stripe, may store or process information outside the UK, including in the United States. When this happens, they use safeguards approved under UK law to protect your information to the same standard as in the UK. You can contact us for more details.

11. How long we keep it

We keep your information, including call recordings, for 6 years after our last contact. After that, we delete it securely.

We keep it this long because the law requires us to keep business and financial records, and so we can answer any questions or complaints about our work. If you contact us but we never work together, you can ask us to delete your details sooner.

12. Keeping it safe

We keep your information in secure, password-protected business accounts, and we only use trusted service providers. We only share it as described in this notice. If something ever went wrong that put your information at risk, we would tell you and the ICO where the law requires it.

13. Your rights

You have the right to:

• See your information. Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you. This is free.
• Correct it. Ask us to fix anything that is wrong or incomplete.
• Have it deleted. Ask us to delete your information. We will, unless the law says we must keep it (for example, financial records).
• Limit how we use it. Ask us to stop using your information in certain ways.
• Object. Object to us using your information where we rely on legitimate interests.
• Take it with you. Ask for a copy in a common digital format, to give to someone else.
• Withdraw consent. Change your mind about anything you agreed to, at any time.

To use any of these rights, phone us on 01946 758199 or email hello@attendanceallowancehelp.co.uk. We will reply within one month. A family member can ask for you, but we may need to check that you’re happy for them to do this.

14. Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first and we’ll do our best to put it right.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator:

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

15. Cookies

This website does not use cookies. It does not use analytics or tracking tools either. If you fill in a form, the details you type are sent to us through Netlify so we can reply. If you pay by card, you’ll go to Stripe’s payment page. That page is run by Stripe, not by us, and may use its own cookies.

16. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If we make an important change that affects you, we will let you know.