Resurrecting this topic as I’m trying to write a local policy on deleting documents and data relating to “dead” claims. Our legal department’s view is that we should delete/destroy data as soon as possible after it ceases to be held for the reason we gathered it, that being to assess entitlement to HB/CTB. I am told by our finance department that HMRC’s 6-year rule doesn’t apply to the kind of data we hold.
Having poked around on the Information Commissioner’s website, it appears that DWP’s policy is to destroy documents & data 14 months after the end of a welfare benefit claim, which is based on a 13-month appeal deadline – clearly they don’t adhere to the 6-year rule.
Internally, the restrictions on keeping documents and data relating to seem to be:
a) 5 years from the date of a proven or admitted fraud;
b) 6 years from the date of an overpayment (or from the date of the last contact with a debtor, if later);
c) until the subsidy claim for the year in question is fully settled.
The last of these obviously applies to every claim which ended in the financial year in question; the first two to individual claims.
I am therefore swaying towards a policy which says to keep all data & documents for fraud or overpayment cases for 5/6 years respectively, and all data & documents for every other case until the settlement of the subsidy claim for the financial year in which they ended.
Would appreciate knowing others’ thoughts on this – also whether anyone believes there to be a difference between copies of customers’ documents stored electronically and user-generated data based on the information in those documents (ie a scanned wageslip vs. a database entry showing the customer’s earned income)…
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