Benefit and budgeting calculator - privacy and your data

Find out how much benefit you are eligible for and how much better off you might be in work. You can also see how changes in your household budget can affect your income.

Who we are and what we do

The benefit and budgeting calculator is a service provided by us to help you to clearly see which benefits you may be entitled to and help you establish a balanced budget in light of your current household needs.

For additional information about your rights and when we will share data, you can read our Privacy Policy. 

 What information we hold and use

We require some personal data about your household and financial circumstances in order to correctly assess your potential benefit entitlement. The data that is required in order to complete the form includes:

  • your surname
  • your existing benefits claims reference or council tax account number 
  • post code
  • date of birth
  • benefit claim start date 
  • household makeup 
  • rent or mortgage amount and payments
  • council tax bandings and payments
  • income and savings details 
  • other contributory benefits you are in receipt of

Using this data, the form will be able to calculate your estimated entitlement to legacy benefits (housing benefit) and universal credit, in order to help you establish which system would be most beneficial to claim through.

You can volunteer additional data relating to your household expenditure and the form will use this data to calculate a budget which may assist you in managing your finances. This data is not required in order to complete the form's benefits entitlement calculation.

How we obtain your personal information

This service will only make use of personal data that you have provided by inputting your data into the form.

What we use this information for

When you provide your personal data to the form, it will provide you with an entitlement calculation indicating which benefits would be best for you to claim. You can retain a copy of this form by printing it or downloading a PDF.

Once you have completed your form, you can also email a copy to the revenues and benefits team. Any data submitted to the us will be used to assist you in managing your claim and council tax account.

For additional information about how we will process the data, what we hold and the legal obligations we are subject to, please see our main Privacy Policy .

We will not receive a copy of the data or have access to the forms you submit unless you explicitly choose to send your results to us.

On what basis do we use your data?

We will not process any of your personal data in terms of receiving or using it unless you specifically choose to send it to a benefits advisor.

We hosts the data but do not otherwise have access to it.

If you choose to send your data to us we will process your data in line with our Legal obligations in relation to benefits, council tax and social security legislation.  

If you have any specific queries about how your personal data is processed for benefits purposes, you can send an email to revenues.benefits@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk or to our Data Protection Officer at data.protection@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

Who do we share your data with?

We do not share the data entered into the form with any third parties. The form itself is provided by and hosted by Policy in Practice in partnership with us.

Neither Policy in Practice or the Council have access to the data you enter into the form. If you choose to share this data with us, only we will have access to this.

Duration of data storage 

The data you enter into the form is only held for as long as you are completing the form. We do not save incomplete forms, and the data is discarded when you close the form on your computer.

If you send your data to us, the data will be added to your benefit claim case or council tax file and will be retained in line with our retention policy for benefits claim and council tax data.

For additional information about your rights and when we will share data, you should  read our Privacy Policy.

Calculate your entitlement

To find out what help you can get use the benefit & budgeting calculator via the link below

What help can I get