Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 10, 2023

At Help for Pensioners, we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect your data when you use our website or services.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data. By using our website or services, you consent to the practices described in this policy.

1. Who We Are

Help for Pensioners is a UK-based organisation dedicated to supporting elderly individuals with care, advice, and community services. We are registered in England and Wales with our registered office at 123 Elder Street, London, SW1A 1AA, United Kingdom.

For the purpose of applicable data protection laws, Help for Pensioners is the data controller of your personal information.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide to Us

We may collect personal information that you provide directly to us, such as:

• Contact information (name, email address, postal address, phone number)
• Demographic information (age, gender)
• Health information relevant to the services we provide
• Financial information if you make payments to us
• Information provided in forms, surveys, or other interactions with our services
• Communications you send to us

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect certain information about your device and usage, including:

• IP address
• Device type and operating system
• Browser type and version
• Time and date of your visit
• Pages you visit
• Time spent on pages
• Links clicked
• Referral source

We collect this information using cookies and similar technologies. Please see our Cookie Policy for more details.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve our services
• Process transactions and send related information
• Send administrative information, such as updates to our terms and policies
• Respond to your comments, questions, and requests
• Provide customer service and support
• Send you marketing communications (subject to your preferences)
• Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our services
• Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities
• Comply with legal obligations
• Protect the rights, property, and safety of our users and others

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Under UK data protection law, we must have a legal basis for processing your personal data. The legal bases we rely on include:

• Consent: Where you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose.
• Contract: Where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
• Legal obligation: Where processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation.
• Vital interests: Where processing is necessary to protect someone's life.
• Legitimate interests: Where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, provided your rights and interests do not override those interests.

5. Sharing Your Information

We may share your personal information with the following categories of recipients:

• Service providers: Third-party companies that perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing, data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, and customer service.
• Professional advisers: Including lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance, and accounting services.
• Government bodies: Where required by law, regulation, or legal process.
• Business transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

6. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process the data, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, as well as applicable legal requirements.

7. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have certain rights regarding your personal information:

• Right of access: You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Right to erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Right to restrict processing: You can ask us to limit the processing of your information in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability: You can request the transfer of your information to yourself or a third party.
• Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Rights related to automated decision-making: You have rights related to how we use your information in automated decision-making processes.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided in the "Contact Us" section below.

8. Data Security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to protect your personal information from accidental loss, unauthorised access, use, alteration, and disclosure. These measures include encryption, firewalls, and secure server facilities.

While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

9. International Data Transfers

We primarily store and process your personal information within the United Kingdom. However, some of our service providers may be based outside the UK or may transfer and store your data outside the UK.

When we transfer your personal information outside of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection by implementing at least one of the following safeguards:

• Transferring data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK government.
• Using specific contracts approved by the UK government that give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

10. Children's Privacy

Our services are not intended for individuals under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child, we will take steps to delete that information as quickly as possible.

11. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, plugins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

12. Marketing Communications

We may use your personal information to send you newsletters, updates, and marketing communications about our services that we think may be of interest to you.

You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by:

• Clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any marketing email we send
• Contacting us using the details provided in the "Contact Us" section below

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

Help for Pensioners
123 Elder Street
London, SW1A 1AA
United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 20 7946 0825

15. Complaints

If you are concerned about how we are handling your personal information, please contact us first. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. You can contact the ICO at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk