What To Do If A Social Worker Breached Your Data

This guide examines how you can make a personal data breach claim if a social worker has breached your data by failing to uphold their obligations under data protection laws. We have provided explanations of both the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and who may be eligible to start a claim following a UK GDPR breach. 

We have also detailed some example scenarios of how a social worker data breach could occur and the harm that could be experienced by the individuals affected. You will also find information on what data breach compensation can cover in successful claims.

In the penultimate section of this guide, there is an overview of the type of No Win No Fee agreement offered by our panel of data breach solicitors and how you can benefit from starting your potential claim under these terms.

Social-Worker-Breached-Your-Data

Advice On How To Claim If A Social Worker Breached Your Data

Contact our team of advisors today for a free assessment of your potential claim. You can speak to a member of our team via the following contact details:

Choose A Topic 

  1. What To Do If A Social Worker Breached Your Data
  2. How Long Do You Have To Claim For A Social Worker Data Breach
  3. How To Demonstrate The Impact Of The Breach
  4. What Could You Claim If A Social Worker Breached Your Data?
  5. Claim For A Data Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
  6. Where Can I Find Out More About Data Breach Claims?

What To Do If A Social Worker Breached Your Data

A personal data breach involves a security incident leading to the destruction, loss, alteration or allows for unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data. This can happen accidentally or unlawfully.

When discussing a potential claim if a social worker breached your data, there are 3 parties that are involved:

  • Data Controller: A data controller decides how and why data is to be processed. 
  • Data Subject: The living identifiable individual to whom the personal data relates.
  • Data Processor: An external organisation that processes personal data on the data controller’s behalf. Not every data controller will use an external data processor and may process the data themselves. 

Both data controllers and processors must adhere to the rules of data protection set out by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). 

To begin a personal data breach claim, the following criteria will need to be met:

  1. The data processor or controller failed to abide by the DPA and UK GDPR.
  2. This failure resulted in a data breach involving your personal data.
  3. You incurred financial loss, psychological harm or both due to the personal data breach. 

How Could A Scenario Where a Social Worker Breached Your Data Occur?

There are a number of scenarios where a social worker could breach your data. We have detailed a few examples here:

  • The social worker lost a device, which detailed your case notes, containing personally identifiable information.
  • The social worker gave your personal file to another organisation that had no authorisation to view it.
  • The social worker left your file on a train by mistake, meaning that your file was now lost and your personal data compromised.

How Long Do You Have To Claim For A Social Worker Data Breach

Generally, you will have 6 years to start the legal process for a personal data breach claim. This can be lessened to 1 year if you are claiming against a public body.

Contact our team as soon as possible after a social worker has breached your data. Our advisors can offer guidance on the data breach limitation period and assess your eligibility to start a claim. Use the contact details provided above to talk to our team. 

How To Demonstrate The Impact Of The Breach

To make a successful data breach claim, you will need to provide evidence of the harm you suffered because of that data breach. Below we have listed a few examples of the evidence you could collect:

  • Correspondence between you and the social services explaining a data breach has occurred in which your personal data was impacted. 
  • Medical records if they show you experienced mental distress because your personal data was the subject of a breach.
  • Financial documents, such as your card statements, if they show fraudulent activity within your accounts.

In the event of a data breach that puts at risk data subjects’ rights and freedoms, the data controller should notify these subjects as soon as possible. They also have 72 hours to notify the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO, the governing body for data protection, which can then launch an investigation into the breach. While the ICO cannot award compensation, the findings of their investigation can be used as evidence for your claim.

You can also notify a social worker that you are dissatisfied with how they are handling your personal data at any time verbally or in writing. Following an unsatisfactory response to your concerns, you can lodge a complaint with the ICO yourself. 

Our advisors can provide an assessment of your potential claim free of charge. You could get support with the collection of evidence from a solicitor from our panel if our team decide you have a valid claim. Use any of the provided contacts below to speak to an advisor.

What Could You Claim If A Social Worker Breached Your Data?

Should you make a successful data breach claim after a social worker has breached your data, you could be awarded compensation for two different types of damage:

  • Material damage is the financial losses experienced from a breach of personal data. For example, your credit card information is stolen, and fraudulent purchases are made using your card.
  • Non-material damage is the emotional and psychological impact of having your data compromised. This can include general stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other mental health conditions. 

The rulings from the cases of Vidal-Hall and Gulati & Others mean that data subjects can claim psychiatric harm independently of material damage and that this harm can be valued in the same way as personal injury claims, respectively. 

What this means is solicitors can use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to calculate a potential value for the non-material damage you have suffered as a result of the data breach. The JCG publication details various types of harm along with their award brackets. 

We have used some of these to create the table below. It is important that we emphasise that data breach claims are valued on an individual basis, and therefore this information has been provided to offer guidance, not to state a guaranteed compensation amount. 

Compensation Table 

Edit
Type of Harm Severity Guideline award bracket Notes
General Psychiatric Damage Severe (a) £54,830 to £115,730 Marked problems relating to work, family life and social life with very poor prognosis.
Moderately Severe (b) £19,070 to £54,830 Significant problems with regard to ability to work, social and family life but a more optimistic prognosis than in (a).
Moderate (c) £5,860 to £19,070 Although there will effects on the injured person’s ability to work and maintain relationships, there will have been marked improvements in their condition.
Less Severe (d) £1,540 to £5,860 The level of award within this bracket will take into account the period of disability and the extent to which sleep patterns and daily activities have been affected.
PTSD Severe (a) £59,860 to £100,670 Cases involving permanent effects to all aspects of the injured person’s life and preventing them from working at all.
Moderately Severe (b) £23,150 to £59,860 The prognosis for cases in this bracket will be better than in (a) but the effects will still likely cause significant disability for the foreseeable future.
Moderate (c) £8,180 to £23,150 Cases where the injured person will have largely recovered and not be experiencing any grossly disabling continuing effects.
Less Severe (c) £3,950 to £8,180 Virtual recovery within one to two years. Any persisting symptoms will be minor.

This table does include possible compensation values for material damage caused by a personal data breach. Get in touch with our team of advisors for more detail on claiming for the financial impacts of a data breach and the potential value of your claim. You can also see our data breach compensation faq for more information. 

Claim For A Data Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor

If you have suffered material or non-material damage after a social worker breached your data, talk to our advisors. They can assess potential claims free of charge. Once an advisor has decided you have a valid team, you could be connected with a specialist data breach solicitor from our panel. The type of No Win No Fee contract offered by our panel is called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). 

By starting your claim with a solicitor under a CFA, there will generally be no upfront fees for the solicitor’s work. You will also not be met with fees during the claims process. In the event your claim fails, you will not be liable for any fees.

A successful data breach claim will be awarded with compensation. A percentage of this compensation will be taken by the solicitor as their success fee. The percentage solicitors can charge as their success fee is subject to a legally binding cap. What this means is, you will receive the majority of any awarded compensation.

Contact our team of advisors today for a free assessment of your potential claim. You can speak to a member of our team via the following contact details:

Where Can I Find Out More About Data Breach Claims?

See some of our other data breach claim guides:

Other resources:

We’d like to thank you for reading our guide on what to do if a social worker breached your data. For further guidance, you can contact our advisors, who can walk you through the data breach claims process as well as provide a cost-free assessment of your circumstances. To speak to a member of our team, use any of the above contact details.