Council error left pensioners' details on view

Posted by The Journal on Apr 8, 10 10:08 AM in Councils

Thousands of pensioners in Northumberland could have been left open to identity theft after their national insurance details were wrongly sent to a distribution company, then put on show on newsletters sent through the post.

Northumberland County Council mistakenly gave national insurance details of 6,597 ex-employees to The Mailing House Group based at Nelson Park at Cramlington.

That company then posted out newsletters to those former workers, which had the insurance numbers on show alongside the recipient's name and address - in breach of the Data Protection Act.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) last night said the combination of a person's national insurance details, their name and address could, if they fell into the wrong hands, "help to build up a picture of someone's life" and put them at risk of identity theft.

This could see a thief wrongly claiming benefits, tax refunds or credit, or even getting a job under the person's name.

The ICO said it takes any breach of the act very seriously and could make the council sign an undertaking to say it will not happen again.

The authority "sincerely" apologised for the error and said it was investigating how it happened.

The council pays The Mailing House to distribute the free Pensioners Newsletter, which is sent out via Royal Mail to all former employees who claim an authority pension.

The authority normally puts together a list of recipients' addresses which uses their national insurance numbers to ensure there is no duplication. The council then removes the numbers and sends the addresses to the Mailing House.

However on this occasion due to "human error" the national insurance numbers were left on the list when it was sent to the company on a password secured e-mail. Mailing House then included the numbers when addressing the newsletters.

One alarmed woman received the newsletter with her number on display on Saturday, and contacted the council on Monday to complain.

She said: "This kind of thing should not be happening really, it is not good."

Chris Heane, the council's information security officer, said: "An error has occurred where the addressee has had their national insurance number printed within the address box.

"This is a breach of the Data Protection Act which we sincerely apologise for and we are currently investigating the cause.

"We have reported this incident to the Information Commissioners Office and we will be writing to each individual concerned to explain how this has happened."

A council spokesperson added: "The mailing company shouldn't have been given the NI numbers.

"It was a clear and very regrettable case of human error."

The Mailing House at Cramlington said it could not comment on work it does for customers.

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