• About Us

    The Hastings and Rother Citizens Advice Bureau was founded on 9 September 1939. It has been continuously active as a charity in the Hastings and Rother areas since then.

    The charity became incorporated as a company limited by guarantee on 28 April 1994. It has been registered with the Charity Commission since 26 July 1994.

    On 9 December 2008 the company changed its name to Citizens Advice 1066 (“CA 1066”).

    Our governing document is available to view here. Our Annual Reports and Financial Statements are available to view online at the Companies House and the Charities Commission websites. 

     

  • Client Agreement

    Citizens Advice will provide you with:

    • Confidential advice. We will not tell anyone about your case and will not pass on anything from our records to anyone outside of Citizens Advice service without your permission unless we are required to do so by law or it is the right and necessary thing to do. Our records are subject to quality checks. We will respect your data protection rights for any information you provide us. Please ask to see our Privacy Policy if you would like to know more.

    • Follow-up work. Any follow-up work will be agreed upon between your adviser and you. This may include negotiating on your behalf with other organisations by letter or phone. We will discuss any offer with you before accepting it unless you have specifically told us what to do.

    • A complaints procedure, If you are not satisfied with the service we have provided. If you wish to complain, please ask for the leaflet which explains how to complain.

    We cannot guarantee to take on all cases, even if someone is already a client. We may have to stop advising you if we believe we cannot make progress on your case for you or there is no further good outcome that can be gained, or if you do not do what we expect of you.

    In return, we expect you:

    • To keep appointments you have made with us or let us know in advance if you can't make it.

    • To inform us of any changes in your circumstances that may be relevant to your case. Examples of relevant changes are change of address, the birth of a child, additional income.

    • To bring in all the papers relevant to your case which your adviser asks for. This includes notification of court or tribunal dates etc.

    • Not to take action on your case on your own behalf without discussing it first with your adviser.

    • To provide written evidence of your income, debts, or other financial matters where appropriate. Your adviser will let you know what is needed.

    • To follow our advice - unless you and your adviser agree that you should do something different.

    • To be honest with us about the circumstances of your case, for instance by telling us about all your debts and income or what led up to your being asked to leave your employment.

    • To always treat our staff and volunteers with dignity and respect.

    We reserve the right to stop advising you if:

    • You turn down a reasonable offer from the other party because you wish to take the matter to a tribunal or court hearing. Your adviser will discuss with you whether an offer is reasonable in the circumstances.

    • You do not follow our expectations listed here.

  • Our Privacy Policy 

    How we use your Personal Information

    We collect and use information about you to help solve your problems, improve our services and tackle wider issues in society that affect people’s lives.

    We always let you decide what you’re comfortable telling us, explain why we need your information and keep it confidential. When we keep something you tell us, we:

    • Only access it when we have a good reason

    • Only share what is necessary and relevant

    • We do not sell it to commercial organisations

    How will you use my data?

    First and foremost, your information will be used to provide you with advice. We also use information in a way that doesn’t directly identify you to understand how different problems are affecting society and to take action to tackle these problems. As this is used for research it is kept separate from your case record.

    Where you have given us your permission and contact details, we, or in some instances a trusted research partner, may contact you to ask you for feedback on the service you received and your overall experience of Citizens Advice.

    Do I have to give my consent for you to use information about me?

    You can decide exactly what information you are happy to tell us. We’ll use the information because we have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do so for the purpose of providing you with advice and carrying out research.

    When we ask for more private information about you, like any health conditions or ethnicity, we will need to get your consent. This is because this information is treated in a special way by the law. You can always withdraw this consent and request we remove what you told us.

    Some of our specialist services, such as Money Advice service, are provided on the basis of consent. We will ask your consent to use your personal information with these services.

    Where will you store my data?

    The record of your case will be stored securely in an electronic case management system used jointly by all Citizens Advice service. We are all responsible for keeping it safe. As part of solving your problem, we might also make written notes, download copies of your case or send emails contacting your information. We will make sure any information is stored securely and only accessed when there is a good reason by staff and volunteers of the Citizens Advice service.

    How long do you keep records for?

    We keep records for 6 years. We may keep records for 16 years if the advice given could have serious consequences if it was not stored for a longer period.

    Why might you share my information? Who will you share it with?

    We will generally not share information without your permission, unless required to do so by law or in some very limited situations, like to protect you or someone else from serious harm.

    If a particular service involves sharing your information without permission, we will always let you know upfront that it isn’t confidential.

    What if I have a question about how my information has been used?

    You can contact us and ask us:

    • What information we’ve stored about you and get a copy to keep

    • To change or update your information

    • To delete your information from our records or withdraw your consent

    • To stop using your information

    If you have any questions about how your information is collected or used, you can contact us at: Citizens Advice 1066, The Magnet Centre, 1 Christ Church Courtyard, London Road, St. Leonards-On-Sea, East Sussex, TN37 6GL

    You can read more detailed information about how some of our services use information on our national site: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/privacy-policy  

    If you are not happy with how we have used your information, you can contact us at:

    www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/Contact-us-form

    You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office to raise a concern about how we have used your information at:

    www.ico.org.uk

    Tel: 0303 123 1113