Privacy policy

The Money and Pensions Service

As of 1st January 2019, Pension Wise, The Money Advice Service and The Pensions Advisory Service are delivered by the Money and Pensions Service. Your data privacy rights are not affected.

The Money and Pensions Service privacy notice can be found here

If you would like more information on how your data is processed, please email contact@pensionwise.gov.uk.

Further information on your rights can be found at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters

What is Pension Wise?

Pension Wise is a free and impartial government service which helps you understand your defined contribution pension options.

The service is provided in partnership with Citizens Advice, The Pensions Advisory Service and Teleperformance.

Your personal data

Pension Wise collects and stores personal data for the purpose of providing you with Pension Wise guidance, and for quality and training purposes in accordance with the statutory requirement described in Section 333B(1) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The lawful basis for Pension Wise processing personal data is set out in Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulations as follows:

processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller

Your data will be shared between Pension Wise and our delivery partners (Citizens Advice, The Pensions Advisory Service and Teleperformance) where it is necessary for the purpose of providing you with Pension Wise guidance, for training and quality purposes and to investigate complaints.

We won’t share your information with any other organisations for marketing or commercial purposes, and we don’t pass on your details to other websites.

How we use your information - booking an appointment

When you use our online booking system or call our booking phone line, you will be asked to provide your name, telephone number, email address, date of birth, and pension type which will be stored on our system and used for the purpose of checking eligibility and booking you an appointment slot at your desired time/location with one of our guidance specialists. We may use the telephone number you provide to send you a text to remind you that your appointment is coming up. We may also store data about any reasonable adjustments you may require to help you to access the appointment.

If you have no further contact with Pension Wise after booking an appointment (for example if you subsequently cancel the appointment and do not re-book), your personal data will be stored in our booking system for a maximum of 2 years from the date the booking was made and then deleted. Calls to our booking line are recorded and stored for 6 months.

For eligibility webchat with the Pensions Advisory Service, your transcript is stored for a period of 12 months before being deleted.

The lawful basis for Pension Wise processing personal data for this purpose is set out in Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulations.

How we use your information - guidance appointments

Face to face and telephone appointments are delivered through Citizens Advice, The Pensions Advisory Service and Teleperformance.

During a Pension Wise guidance appointment questions will be asked about your personal and family affairs, financial arrangements and plans and general state of health to inform the discussion with the guidance specialist.

Details of these will be stored on our systems as part of the record of your appointment.

Personal data

The lawful basis for Pension Wise processing this data for the delivery of appointments in conjunction with our delivery partners (the Citizens Advice network and The Pensions Advisory Service), and storing your data securely for a maximum of 2 years, is set out in Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulations; “performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller”

For telephone appointments with the Pensions Advisory Service and Citizens Advice, key details from your appointment are stored, and calls are recorded and stored, for a maximum of two years before being deleted.

For appointments delivered by Citizens Advice (England and Wales), they will ask for your consent to store key details from your appointment for a period of six years, in line with their organisational retention policy. This is to respond to any comments/complaints that arise within the 6 year statute of limitation period. The lawful basis for this is set out in Article 6(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations; “the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.”

For appointments delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland, key details from your appointment will be stored for 6 years, in line with their organisational retention policy. This is to respond to any comments/complaints that arise within the 6 year statute of limitation period. The lawful basis for this is set out in Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulations; “processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child.”

Consent can be withdrawn at any time by contacting Citizens Advice directly, or by emailing contact@pensionwise.gov.uk.

Health data

For face-to-face appointments delivered by Citizens Advice England and Wales, any basic health data you provide when requesting an appointment online and during the appointment will be stored in general terms as part of the record of appointment, where it is relevant to your pension options (for example a health condition may entitle you to an enhanced annuity). Where this occurs, processing and retention of this data for a maximum of 2 years is in accordance with Article 9(2)(g) of the General Data Protection Regulations, in reference to Schedule 1, Part 2(6)(1 and 2) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Citizens Advice (England and Wales) will ask for your consent to store any basic health data discussed in your appointment for a period of six years, in line with their organisational retention policy. This consent process is in accordance with Article 9(2)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulations.

Citizens Advice Scotland does not keep a written record of health data relating to Pension Wise appointments. However, special category data that you disclose during a telephone appointment will be stored on an audio recording for 2 years. You will be reminded of this at the start of the call and advised that you are under no obligation to disclose any special category data.

Consent can be withdrawn at any time by contacting Citizens Advice directly, or by emailing contact@pensionwise.gov.uk.

You will be provided with a summary of your appointment.

How we use your information - appointment summary

After your appointment we will send you a standard document which summarises the core content of a Pension Wise appointment. We will ask for your postal address and/or email address to send this to you. We also use your postcode to understand the spread of where our appointment customers are located across the UK.

How we use your information - website

The information we collect on the website includes:

  • questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your email address if you send an email to Pension Wise
  • your IP address, and details of which version of web browser you used
  • information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques to help us improve the website

This helps us to:

  • improve the site by monitoring how it is used
  • respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
  • provide you with information about local services if you want it

We can’t personally identify your use of the website using this data.

Any personal data collected will be deleted after being securely stored for a maximum of 2 years.

How we use your information - complaints

In order to investigate complaints effectively, details of your interactions with Pension Wise will be shared between Pension Wise and our delivery partners (Citizens Advice, The Pensions Advisory Service and Teleperformance).

If you have a live complaint we will store your booking and appointment data for longer than our standard retention period if it is necessary to effectively respond to the complaint and deal with any subsequent appeals. Any complaints will be stored for 2 years from the date of resolution.

How we use your information - research

During your interactions with Pension Wise you will be asked if you would be happy to be contacted by our research partner. If you consent to this, Ipsos Mori may contact you to ask if you wish to participate in research and evaluation of your experience of Pension Wise. Participation is entirely voluntary and will not affect the service that you receive from Pension Wise. The research involves asking you questions about your experience of the Pension Wise service, and the actions you have taken towards accessing your pension since your appointment. This research helps us to develop and improve the Pension Wise service.

You can withdraw your consent to be contacted by Ipsos Mori at any time, by emailing contact@pensionwise.gov.uk

Storing your data securely

We store your data on secure servers within the EU. We have procedures and security features in place to keep your data secure once we receive it.

Pension Wise contains links to and from other websites.

This privacy policy only applies to Pension Wise, and doesn’t cover other government services and transactions that we link to.

If you go to another website from this one, read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.

Your rights

We want to make sure you are aware of your rights in relation to the personal information we process. We have described those rights and the circumstances in which they apply below.

Access

You have a right to get access to the personal information we hold about you. For more information on how to get access to your information and the documents we need you to submit or to make a formal Subject Access Request (SAR) please complete the SAR Form. This can be submitted via email dpo@maps.org.uk or by post.

Rectification

You have a right to rectification of inaccurate personal information and to update incomplete personal information. If you believe that any of the information that we hold about you is inaccurate, you have a right to request that we restrict the processing of that information and to rectify the inaccurate personal information.

Erasure

You have a right to request that we delete your personal information. Under Article 17 of the GDPR individuals have the right to have personal data erased. The right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances.

You may request that we delete your personal information if you believe that:

  • we no longer need to process your information for the purposes for which it was provided
  • we have requested your permission to process your personal information and you wish to withdraw your consent
  • we are not using your information in a lawful manner

The right to erasure does not apply if processing is necessary for one of the following reasons: 

  • to exercise the right of freedom of expression and information
  • to comply with a legal obligation
  • for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority
  • for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific research historical research or statistical purposes where erasure is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of that processing
  • for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims

For further information go to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Restriction

You have a right to request us to restrict the processing of your personal information. You may request us to restrict processing your personal information if you believe that:

  • any of the information that we hold about you is inaccurate
  • we no longer need to process your information for the purposes for which it was provided, but you require the information to establish, exercise or defend legal claims
  • we are not using your information in a lawful manner

Objection

In accordance with Article 21 of the General Data Protection Regulations, you have the right to object to us processing your data. Depending on the nature of the request, this may interfere with our ability to provide you with guidance. For example, if you wanted a telephone appointment but objected to us using your phone number, we would not be able to call you to conduct the appointment. As another example, if you objected to us using both your email address and your postal address, we would not be able to send you a confirmation of your appointment booking, or a summary of your appointment.

You have a right to withdraw your consent. Where we rely on your permission to process your personal information, you have a right to withdraw your consent at any time. We will always make it clear where we need your permission to undertake specific processing activities.

Lodge complaints

You have a right to lodge a complaint. If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter and report back to you.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, if you have any queries about how we use your personal information that are not answered here, or if you wish to complain to our Data Protection Officer, please contact us:

Email: dpo@maps.org.uk
Post: The Money and Pensions Service, Holborn Centre, 120 Holborn, London, EC1N 2TD
Telephone: 020 7943 0500

The Data Protection Officer responsible for the Pension Wise service is Emma Wheeler.

You have the right to raise concerns you have about our handling of your data with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Further details on your rights and the process for raising a concern are here.