Debt Recovery Data Breach – How Much Could I Claim?
In this guide, we examine when you could be eligible to start a claim for a debt recovery data breach. You will find information on the circumstances that could result in a data breach at a debt recovery company and both the financial and psychological impacts this could have.
Debt Recovery Data Breach – How Much Could I Claim?
We have also included an explanation of how data breach compensation is calculated, as well as given a list of the evidence you could collect to support your data breach claim.
The penultimate section of this guide explores the benefits you can expect when starting your potential claim with one of the experienced data breach solicitors from our panel of experts under the specific type of No Win No Fee contract they can offer.
Our advisors are available 24/7 to address any questions you may have or to provide an assessment of your eligibility to start a claim at no cost to you. Speak to our team at any time using the contact information given here:
- Call on 020 3870 4868.
- Begin your claim online by completing this form.
- Click the live chat button at the bottom of your screen.
Select A Section
- How Much Could I Claim For A Debt Recovery Data Breach?
- When Could You Claim For A Data Breach At A Debt Recovery Company?
- What Can Cause A Data Breach?
- What Evidence Is Needed When Claiming For A Debt Recovery Data Breach?
- How Do You Start A No Win No Fee Debt Recovery Data Breach Claim?
- Further Information On Data Breach Claims
How Much Could I Claim For A Debt Recovery Data Breach?
Compensation awarded in a successful debt recovery data breach claim can compensate for two different types of damage. Material damage refers to financial losses stemming from a personal data breach, while non-material damage refers to psychiatric harm, such as depression, stress, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced as a result of your personal data being compromised.
Those responsible for calculating a possible figure for non-material damage in your claim can refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This publication details various injuries with guideline award brackets for each.
Compensation Table
We have used a selection of the JCG brackets for psychological injuries in the table here, with the exception of the first entry. Please be advised that this table is intended to act as guidance only since data breach claims are calculated on a case-by-case basis.
| Type of Harm | Severity | JCG Bracket | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very serious mental injuries with substantial financial losses | Very serious | Up to £150,000 and above | The person has suffered a serious impact on their mental health and incurred significant financial losses, such as lost income, as a result of a poor prognosis. |
| General Psychiatric Harm | Severe (a) | £54,830 to £115,730 | A marked impact on different areas of the person’s life, including work, their social life and personal relationships with a very poor prognosis. |
| Moderately Severe (b) | £19,070 to £54,830 | Significant problems with regard to work and personal relationships but the prognosis is much more positive than in (a). | |
| Moderate (c) | £5,860 to £19,070 | The injured person will have experienced a marked improvement with regard to multiple aspects of their life and the prognosis will be good. | |
| Less Severe (d) | £1,540 to £5,860 | Awards in this bracket will take into consideration the impact on sleep and daily activity, and the length of the period of disability. | |
| PTSD | Severe (a) | £59,860 to £100,670 | Severe and permanent impacts across all aspects of the injured person’s life. |
| Moderately Severe (b) | £23,150 to £59,860 | Cases where the injured person will be significantly disabled for the foreseeable future. However, there is a better prognosis and some recovery due to professional help being sought. | |
| Moderate (c) | £8,180 to £23,150 | The injured person will not be experiencing any gross disablement from persisting issues and will have largely recovered. | |
| Less Severe (d) | £3,950 to £8,180 | Virtual recovery within 2 years and only minor symptoms persisting for longer. |
To get a more detailed estimate of the compensation you could be entitled to, contact our advisors today using the contact details provided above.
When Could You Claim For A Data Breach At A Debt Recovery Company?
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent regulator for information rights, define a personal data breach as an incident of security that impacts the integrity, availability or confidentiality of personal data.
A debt recovery data breach can occur as a result of the failings of a data controller. This is the organisation that decides when, why and how your personal data is to be processed. Data breaches can also occur when data processors, external parties contracted to process data on behalf of the data controller, fail to meet their obligations under data protection law. It is important to note that not every data controller will use external processing services and may choose to process data internally. A data subject is the living individual to whom the personal data relates.
Data controllers and processors have obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. Failing to adhere to these data protection laws is known as wrongful conduct and can result in a breach that compromises your personal data. Personal data is defined as information that can be used to directly or indirectly, when used in conjunction with other information, identify an individual.
The eligibility criteria to begin a personal data breach claim are as follows:
- The data controller, or processor, failed to adhere to data protection law.
- Their wrongful conduct resulted in a breach in which your personal data was impacted.
- As a result of this breach, you suffered financial losses, a psychiatric injury or both.
Is There A Time Limit When Making A Debt Recovery Data Breach?
In most cases, the time limit to begin a claim for a data breach is 6 years. However, where the claim is against a public body, this is reduced to 1 year. This is set out in the Limitation Act 1980.
Contact our advisors to learn more about the relevant time limits for debt recovery data breach claims.
What Can Cause A Data Breach?
Examples of personal data that a debt recovery company could hold are names and addresses, contact information such as your phone number and email address as well as financial information such as your bank account or credit card details.
Below you can see some example scenarios of how a debt recovery data breach can occur:
- The debt recovery company sent a letter concerning your repayments to the wrong address. This meant you were not notified about your debt repayment. The recovery was subsequently escalated to the High Court, resulting in you being liable for a much higher sum.
- Staff who had received no training disposed of documents containing your bank details with other office waste instead of destroying them. As a result of this error, unauthorised parties were able to gain access to your account and make fraudulent purchases.
- Inadequate physical security at the debt recovery agency meant hard copies of your personal data were not locked away or secured. The documents subsequently went missing and an unauthorised party was able to acquire them.
A data breach at a debt recovery agency can impact those affected in different ways including mentally and/or financially. Speak to one of our advisors today to find out if you are eligible to claim for your particular circumstances.
What Evidence Is Needed When Claiming For A Debt Recovery Data Breach?
As part of your debt recovery data breach claim, you will need to provide some supporting evidence. This evidence will be used to show both that a data breach occurred, what personal data was affected and the impacts this had on you. We have compiled a list of potential evidence you could use here:
- Correspondence between you and the debt recovery company explaining that a data breach has occurred and that your personal data was affected. This is usually in the form of a data breach notice letter.
- Medical documents, such as from your doctor demonstrating that you experienced psychological distress as a result of the data breach.
- Any financial records, such as your bank statements, that show suspicious or fraudulent activity within your accounts.
Contacting The ICO About A Debt Recovery Data Breach
Data controllers have an obligation to inform all data subjects affected by a data breach if their data subject rights and freedoms have been put at risk. They must do so without undue delay from when they discover the breach. There is also a requirement for the data controller to inform the ICO a data breach has occurred within 72 hours of the discovery of the breach if it meets the reporting threshold. The ICO can then open an investigation into how the breach occurred. You can use the findings from this investigation as part of your supporting evidence.
If you have not been contacted but suspect a breach has happened, you could contact the organisation. However, if they don’t respond adequately or at all, you can raise a complaint with the ICO.
Contact our advisors today for a free assessment of your eligibility to begin a claim. If our team decides you have valid grounds to move forward, they could connect you with one of the solicitors from our panel of data breach experts. A solicitor could assist you with compiling a thorough body of evidence and making sure your data breach claim is brought within the relevant time limit.
How Do You Start A No Win No Fee Debt Recovery Data Breach Claim?
Contact our team of advisors for a no-cost assessment of your eligibility to begin a debt recovery data breach claim. A specialist data breach solicitor from our expert panel could offer to take on your claim under a No Win No Fee contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
Starting your claim under a CFA means you will benefit from the distinct features of this type of contract. In most cases, the solicitor will not be charging any initial fees to begin the work on your case, nor will they charge for this work during the actual claims process. There will also be no fee for the solicitor’s services following an unsuccessful claim.
You will pay the solicitor if they win your case. The solicitor will take a success fee from your awarded data breach compensation. This is taken as a percentage. However, the percentage solicitors can legally charge as their success fee is capped by the law. Therefore if you win your claim, most of the compensation is yours to keep.
Our advisors are available 24/7 to address any questions you may have or to provide an assessment of your eligibility to start a claim. Speak to our team at any time using the contact information given here:
- Call on 020 3870 4868.
- Discuss your claim online by completing this form.
- Click the live chat button at the bottom of your screen.
Further Information On Data Breach Claims
You can read more of our data breach claims guides here:
- Read our guide on how to report a UK GDPR data breach and who could be eligible to claim.
- Find out when you could make a joint bank account data breach claim.
- Learn more about how a CCTV data breach could occur and who could claim compensation.
We have also included some external resources you may find useful:
- Find support for a range of mental health conditions with this NHS webpage.
- You can read the ICO guidance on rights of access on their website.
- Learn helpful tips for staying secure online with this resource from the National Cyber Security Centre.
Thank you for reading our guide on claiming compensation following a debt recovery data breach. Our advisors are available 24 hours a day to provide further guidance on data breaches. They can also offer you a free assessment of your eligibility to begin a data breach claim. Contact our team today via the details given above.
