This privacy notice explains how Income Max collect and use personal information about you, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
1. Who we are
Our Registered Office: Income Max CIC, 41 – 43 Brentwood Road, Romford RM1 2EU
Our website: www.IncomeMax.org.uk
Our email: info@IncomeMax.org.uk
Our telephone number: 0300 777 7772
Registered in England no. 07023661
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Reference 618767
Information Commissioners Office Registration No. Z2193255
We know that life happens but believe there is always a step forward. We provide independent personal money advice for the real world that helps you take control of your finances.
Income Max has helped thousands of households manage their finances and we know how to help real people. We never charge you for our service. Our costs are covered by partners that refers you to us or through other funding we receive.
2. How we get and use your information
Customers who we advise
This Privacy notice applies to this website and when Income Max acts a Data Controller. This means that on some occasions we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you.
In some cases, Income Max acts as a Data Processor processing your personal information on another Data Controller's (usually our funding partner) behalf and instructions, and the remainder of this Privacy Notice may not wholly apply. Partners that may refer you to Income Max include your bank, utility company or financial services firms. Please contact the Partner, or us, for information about the processing of your data. You may have already been provided with a Privacy Notice specific to your referral.
When we receive your contact details from the partner who refers you, we expect them to already have your Consent. Our service is free, and you can withdraw at any time. If you decide to proceed we will collect the information needed to provide our service directly from you, another household member, or a person you have nominated to act on your behalf.
If we do give you advice, we rely on our Legitimate Interest to retain the records. We need to keep records as a condition of our funding and to defend legal claims.
IncomeMax Messenger
IncomeMax Messenger is free to use and an optional part of our service. When you use IncomeMax Messenger this forms part of our advice service and we regard participation as your Consent. We will transfer the contents of Messenger to your advice record.
You can download the content of your Messenger account at any time. You can deactivate your Messenger account at any time, but you will no longer have direct access to your messages.
Document Upload
The document upload service is free to use and an optional part of our service. When you use the document upload, this forms part of our advice service and we regard participation as your Consent. We will transfer the documents you upload to your advice record. For security purposes we ask you to create an account to use document upload.
Website Contact form
If you complete the contact form on our website, we only receive your name and contact details. We will use your email address to send you information about Income Max and our services. You can stop receiving emails by selecting the unsubscribe option in any email we send you or by contacting us (see above).
3. The kind of information we hold about you
We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
4. Special Category Data
We will collect health, medical and information about disabilities where they are relevant to your financial situation such as benefits. We rely on GDPR Article 9 2(b) (Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 1, 1(1)) which relates to exercising your rights under social security or social protection law. The Data Protection Act 2018 requires us to have an Appropriate Policy Document, explaining how we conduct this processing.
5. Sharing of your data
Referring Partners. Where we act as a Data Controller, we may share your data, in the form of a report of the outcome of our service, with the Organisation that originally referred you to Income Max.
Funding Partners. Where your advice session is funded by a 3rd party we may share your data, in the form of a report of the outcome of our service. The data we share with them uses a reference number and does not include your name. The funding partner will not be able to identify you directly. This is called pseudonymisation.
Warm Home Discount Scheme. We pass the results to Ofgem (Office of Gas & Electricity Markets) who administer certain elements of the scheme on behalf of the Government. The data we share with them uses a reference number and does not include your name.
Department of Work & Pensions (DWP). We sometimes recommend a 3-way call between you, us and the DWP to expedite or clarify your claim. We will only do this with your consent.
Case Studies. We prepare case studies to promote our work. We will always ask your permission if we want to use your case. You will never be identified in the report.
We will never sell or share your data for marketing purposes.
Transferring information outside the EEA. We may transfer the personal information we collect about you outside of the UK. However, we always ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection, and we will put in place appropriate protective measures to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects UK laws on data protection.
6. How we protect your data
We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. We have in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. When we share data with a Partner or Ofgem we always use secure or encrypted methods. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
7. How long we retain your data for
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. We mainly keep your information for six years beyond the completion of our service, to protect ourselves from legal claims.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. We will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy and/or applicable laws and regulations.
8. What your rights are: rights of access, rectification, erasure, and restriction
Your duty to inform us of changes
It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.
Your rights in connection with personal information
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
If you want to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or request erasure of your personal information, please contact info@IncomeMax.org.uk detailing your request.
If you want to review, verify, correct your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact us.
Right to withdraw consent
In the circumstances where you may have provided your explicit consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time.
To withdraw your consent, please contact us. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another lawful basis for doing so in law.
10. Complaints
If you wish to complain to Income Max about the processing of your data, please email us at info@IncomeMax.org.uk so that we can try and put it right.
If you are still unhappy, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. Find out on their website how to report a concern or call the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113
11. Cookies – please see our cookie policy - https://www.incomemax.org.uk/cookie-policy
12. Changes to this notice
We will update this notice from time to time. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact us.
Version 5 - updated February 2023
