One of the services we offer is welfare rights advice and assistance. Our advisers support an array of things including benefit applications, appeals and housing advice.
This service is funded thanks to the generosity of Royal Free Charity donors, so there is no cost to you, the service user. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].
The below information lets you know about how we handle your personal information.
If you have any questions about this, wish to make a request to see your information, exercise any of your other data protection rights, or have a complaint please contact the support hub lead, Liz Fowler: [email protected].
Please read our privacy policy where you can read more about your data protection rights.
We record and hold your information in your client file in our secure client case management database.
We need your personal information to understand your situation. We use it to help with your enquiry or case. We are an advice service and will be working on your behalf, so we need this information to be able to support you. We will ask for your consent when opening your enquiry or case. If we have ongoing casework, we will ask you to sign a consent form to agree we can store your information. You can withdraw consent at any time.
Your information can only be accessed and used by the support hub team (including welfare rights advisers, support hub lead and coordinator). We will ask for your agreement before we contact any third parties; we will ask you to provide your consent via the initial consent form. We will also give feedback to the medical professional at Royal Free London who initially referred to you about the outcome of our support with you. Again, you can withdraw consent at any time.
We protect your confidentiality. However, we can share your personal information in the following circumstances:
The RFC support hub retains your personal information for the advice industry standard of 6 years. If you’d like your information removed before this, please get in touch.
Full details can be found on our privacy policy. Below outlines our terms of service. If you have any queries please talk to your welfare rights adviser, or you can contact the welfare rights supervisor: [email protected] or the support hub lead: [email protected].
The below information outlines our terms of service.
If you have any queries please talk to your welfare rights adviser, or you can contact our support hub lead Liz Fowler using the link below.
An experienced welfare rights adviser will contact you to discuss your situation. They will assess the level of assistance you need, provide general advice and follow up in writing. In some cases, we may act on your behalf. If we do this, your adviser will manage your case and keep you informed.
We kindly ask that you keep us updated and respond to our correspondence to help progress your case. If we do not hear from you for a month, we may assume you no longer require our assistance and close your case. It can be re-opened if appropriate if you get back in touch. The welfare rights supervisor will oversee the casework.
This includes inappropriate or aggressive words or behaviour, including:
We reserve the right to withdraw our service because of abuse, violence, inappropriate words or behaviour.
We are always keen to learn and improve our service. If you have any feedback or suggestions for the service, please email: [email protected] and/or [email protected]
As we are a charity service, it is important that we show the impact of the support we give, (i.e. how it might have made a difference to people), so that we can show why the support hub is important to fund as a service, as well as for us to learn how we can improve. Additionally, a Royal Free Charity volunteer may be in touch with you after our support to gather feedback.
In the unlikely event that you are dissatisfied with the quality of the service, please contact your welfare rights adviser in the first instance. If you remain dissatisfied, please email the welfare rights supervisor, Suki Jandu: [email protected]
You can also read our complaints policy online.
Updated: August 2024