Liverpool City Council: No action over data breach, watchdog says

A council which sent letters addressed to the wrong names to 10,000 homes awaiting a council tax rebate will face no action from the UK data watchdog.

The £150 rebate is part of a £32m government scheme to help people with the rising cost of gas and electricity.

Liverpool City Council apologised and referred the case to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

The watchdog said it had given the council data protection advice and closed the case with no further action.

The local authority sent out thousands of letters to homes across the city that do not pay by direct debit, inviting them to apply for the pay back, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

It was only after they were issued that council officials realised the wrong names had been put on the letters.

A spokeswoman for the ICO confirmed it had received a referral from the local authority.

She said: "After carefully reviewing the information provided, we gave data protection advice and recommendations to the council and closed the case with no further action."

New letters were issued to homes impacted by the breach containing advice on how to destroy the original as well as a reminder of how to apply for the rebate online.

The council said: "We will work as fast as we can to ensure that the funds are deposited in resident's accounts as quickly as possible."

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