You may be eligible to make a claim for data breach compensation if you’ve been the victim of an incident involving HM Revenue and Customs.
Central and local government data breach incidents are one of the most common types we deal with here at the Data Leak Lawyers. Whether it’s funding restraints or the wealth of personal and sensitive data they hold being difficult to handle, a lot of the individual cases we take forward fall within this category.
With this in mind, here’s a little information about your rights when it comes to a HM Revenue and Customs data breach claim.
Can you claim for a HM Revenue and Customs data breach?
You can be eligible to claim compensation for a HM Revenue and Customs data breach incident, and we can help you if you’re a resident of England or Wales.
You can claim for the distress that’s related to the loss of control of your information, and you can also claim for any financial losses incurred as well. Its important to note that you don’t have to have suffered a financial loss to claim, as data breach compensation amounts can be solely based on the distress that you suffer from.
With HMRC processing and storing a wealth of personal and sensitive data about tens of millions of people, a breach incident can be incredibly serious.
How common are HMRC breach incidents?
We’ve been asked for help by a number of people who have suffered because of a HM Revenue and Customs data breach incident. There have also been some previous large-scale breaches that you may recall over the last few years as well.
In November 2007 there was the huge incident where HMRC lost 25 million records. The data they lost was for child benefit recipients, and included names, addresses, birth dates, and also bank account and National Insurance data as well.
This triggered some series changes in the way HMRC handled data after MPs criticised the incident, with one saying that civil servants “simply cannot be trusted with people’s personal information.”
With GDPR now in force, the duty organisations have to protect the data they process and store is higher, and the punishments can be far more severe.
Free, no-obligation advice
If you have suffered as a result of a v HM Revenue and Customs data breach incident, know your rights.
You may be entitled to claim compensation, and we may be able to represent you on a No Win, No Fee basis.
For free, no-obligation advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our expert team.