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NHS Low Income Scheme privacy notice

The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for this service.

Why we process your information

We will use the information you give in this form to:

  • work out your claim for help with NHS costs
  • help plan and make improvements to NHS services and direct patient care

By law, we must process this information to be able to provide this service.

We will ask you for:

  • information to identify you and, if appropriate, your partner and anyone who lives with you
  • details of your income, savings, benefits received, expenses and any relevant disabilities to process your application

We may use your information to:

  • check claims you make for help with NHS charges
  • analyse with other patients' information to understand patterns and trends that will be used to plan and make improvements to NHS services and direct patient care

If we can’t confirm that you are entitled to help, you may be sent a Penalty Charge Notice.

Your information will not be transferred outside the UK or European Economic Area.

Sharing your personal information

To support more effective planning and improvements to NHS services and patient care, we may share our understanding of patterns and trends gained from patient information with:

  • NHS Commissioners and service providers
  • Public Health England
  • NHS Digital
  • Department of Health and Social Care
  • NHS Counter Fraud Authority

To prevent, detect and investigate fraud and errors, we may share your information with:

  • NHS commissioners and service providers
  • NHS England
  • Department for Work and Pensions
  • HM Revenue and Customs
  • NHS Counter Fraud Authority

Keeping your personal information

Your personal data will be deleted from our systems and files no later than:

  • 24 months after your certificate expires for applications made in England and Wales
  • 15 months after the month we process your claim if you live in Scotland, increasing to 63 months if you receive a certificate which is valid for 5 years

We keep your information to check you have a valid exemption certificate when you claim any help with NHS costs.

If you request a Low Income Scheme application form (HC1) from our website or automated telephone system, we will retain your address information on that system for no more than a year. This is to monitor trends in how customers order the application form and the number of completed forms we receive.

Your rights

The information you provided will be managed as required by Data Protection law.

You have the right to:

  • receive a copy of the information the NHSBSA hold about you
  • request your information be changed if you believe it was not correct at the time you provided it
  • request that your information be deleted if you believe we are keeping it for longer than necessary
  • request a review of the automated decision to issue you with a Penalty Charge Notice

Find out more about your rights and how we process information.

Find out more about the cookies we use when you use our online services.