Can I Claim If Social Services Sent Data To An Ex Partner?

Social services sending your personal data to an ex-partner can be a serious, dangerous, and distressing breach. Doing so may expose your personal data to someone who may misuse it. It may also re-expose you to someone who you were in a dangerous or abusive relationship with. The consequences of a breach can be deeply personal, causing emotional distress, anxiety, and fears over your safety. If social services sent data to an ex-partner, you may be eligible to claim compensation.

Key Points

• When processing personal data, social services must adhere to the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) which sit together as data protection laws.
• Personal data breaches could occur due to misdirected communications, administrative errors, human error, or other causes.
• Claimants may suffer psychological harm, such as anxiety, if the ex-partner has a history of domestic abuse.
• You could be compensated for psychological harm and/or qualifying financial losses.
• A solicitor from our panel could help you claim for a social services data breach on a No Win No Fee basis.

If social services sent your data to an ex-partner, an advisor could help you understand your next steps. Contact our friendly team today to discuss your circumstances.

Jump To A Section

• Can I Claim If Social Services Sent Data To An Ex Partner?
• Why Might An Ex Partner Be Sent My Information By Social Services?
• What Can I Do After Social Services Breached My Data To An Ex Partner?
• How Much Compensation Can I Get If Social Services Sent Data To An Ex Partner?
• Can I Claim For A Social Services Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?
• Learn More

Can I Claim If Social Services Sent Data To An Ex Partner?

You could claim compensation if social services sent data to ex-partner without a lawful basis for doing so, and this caused you financial or psychological harm.

Any organisation that processes the personal data of UK residents must adhere to the rules and regulations set out within the UK GDPR, this includes social services.

Personal data is any information that could identify you. Below we will share some examples of personal data social services may hold about you.

If social services fail to adhere to data protection laws, this could lead to a data breach. A data breach is classed as a security incident that affects personal data’s integrity, availability or confidentiality.

To be eligible to make a personal data breach claim, you must show that:

1. An organisation, such as social services, failed to adhere to data protection laws.
2. This failure resulted in a breach affecting your personal data.
3. The breach caused you financial or emotional harm.

What Types Of Information Could Be Breached?

Types of information that could be breached could include your name, address and more sensitive details such as finances and relationship data.

Examples of personal data social services could hold include:

• Your name
• Your current address
• Your phone number
• Records of contact with social services

Additionally, social services may hold some special category data about you. This is data that is considered sensitive and therefore needs extra protection. This may include:

• Medical data regarding you physical and mental health
• Financial information
• Safeguarding records about you or your child
• Family and relationship information

If social services sent data to your ex-partner, including the types listed above, you could be entitled to compensation. Speak to one of our advisors to learn more about making a personal data breach claim.

Why Might An Ex Partner Be Sent My Information By Social Services?

Social services may send your personal data to an ex-partner due to poor record keeping, misdelivery, or unauthorised verbal disclosure. Breaches may stem from various types of human error, such as:

• Wrong address data breaches, a social worker sends a letter and documents containing your new address to your old address where your ex partner still lives. This exposes your new address to said abusive ex-partner, causing anxiety and the need to relocate due to safety concerns.
• Email data breach, a caseworker sends confidential health information to an to your ex-partners email instead of yours do to not double checking the correct contact information. This significantly lowers your mental well being.
• Verbal disclosure, a social worker discusses your new address and contact information over the phone to your ex partner without authorisation from you or a lawful basis for doing so. This causes you safety concerns, affecting your mental well being.

Please get in touch with our team to learn more about the different types of personal data breach you could claim for. They can also offer you free advice for your particular circumstance.

What Can I Do After Social Services Breached My Data To An Ex Partner?

After social services breached your data to an ex partner, you can report the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), make a complaint to social services themself, and collect evidence to support a personal data breach claim.

You can report the data breach to:

• Social services themselves. They could also use this report towards better data protection training of their staff.
• To the ICO This is the UK’s independent data protection regulator. They can investigate data breaches and issue fines to organisations who have breached data protection law.

Additionally, you can gather evidence, such as:

• Medical records showing a confirmed diagnosis of a psychiatric condition.
• Financial records showing any qualifying financial losses, such as payslips and invoices.
• Correspondence with social services, such as a data breach notification letter, about what personal data was breached and how this happened.
• Any findings from an ICO investigation.

You must also ensure that your claim is filed within the applicable time limit. This is generally up to 6 years.

Get further advice on what to do if social services sent data to an ex partner by contacting us today.

How Much Compensation Can I Get If Social Services Sent Data To An Ex Partner?

How much compensation you can get if social services sent data to an ex-partner would depend on the type of psychological harm you suffered, it’s severity, what financial losses you suffered, and whether you are claiming for both types of harm or just one.

In a personal data breach claim, you could be compensated for your:

• Non-material damage – this refers to your psychological harm. It may include anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
• Material damage – this refers to your financial losses. In the next section, we will provide some examples.

Data breach solicitors may refer to compensation guidelines within the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) when calculating the value of psychiatric harm. The JCG contains guideline compensation brackets for different forms of physical and psychological injuries.

Our table takes guideline compensation amounts from the JCG regarding mental harm, with the exception of the first row. Please note that these figures do not guarantee your settlement.

Harm and severity	Notes	Compensation bracket
Severe psychological harm and financial losses	Severe psychiatric harm has been suffered as well as financial losses such as therapy fees, relocation costs and lost wages.	Up to £250,000+
Severe psychiatric damage.	Marked issues affecting the claimants ability to cope with all areas of life.	£66,920 to £141,240
Moderately severe psychiatric damage.	Still significant issues across multiple areas of the claimants life but the prognosis is better than severe cases.	£23,270 to £66,920
Moderate psychiatric damage.	Claimant makes a marked improvement by the time of trial and the prognosis is good.	£7,150 to £23,270
Less severe psychiatric damage.	Duration of a disability and how it impacts certain areas of the claimants life will be taken into consideration.	£1,880 to £7,150
Severe post-traumatic stress disorder.	Permanent effects prevent the claimant working, or working as they did prior to the trauma.	£73,050 to £122,850
Moderately severe post-traumatic stress disorder.	There is a better prognosis than severe cases and some recovery is possible with professional help.	£28,250 to £73,050
Moderate post-traumatic stress disorder.	The person is largely recovered with no effects which are grossly disabling.	£9,980 to £28,250
Less severe post-traumatic stress disorder.	The claimant will have virtually recovered within 12-24 months.	£4,820 to £9,980

What Material Losses Could Occur After Social Services Sent Data To An Ex Partner?

Material losses, such as lost income and therapy fees may occur after social services send data to an ex-partner.

Some examples of material damage you could claim compensation for include

• Lost income, including future lost income, for taking time off work due to the psychiatric harm you suffered.
• Therapy, counselling, and other mental health services.
• Relocation costs.
• Home security costs.

An expert solicitor could help assess how much compensation you could claim for a personal data breach. Contact our advisors today to see if you could work with a solicitor from our panel.

Can I Claim For A Social Services Breach With A No Win No Fee Solicitor?

You can claim for a social services data breach with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel, provided you have a valid claim. You may do so under the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). CFA’s allow you to benefit from the specialist services one of the solicitors from our panel could offer, without having to pay for said services:

• Prior to the claim beginning
• While the claim is progressing
• If the claim ends unsuccessfully

Should the claim be a success, however, you will pay your solicitor a legally capped percentage of your compensation. This is referred to as a success fee.

Some of the expert services a solicitor from our panel could offer you on  a No Win No Fee basis include:

• Providing legal representation through the claims process.
• Clear guidance throughout the data breach claims process.
• Negotiating your settlement to cover both the material and non-material damage you have suffered.
• Helping you to gather evidence of your claim.
• Provide regular case updates.

Contact Data Breach Claims

Contact Data Breach Claims to see whether you could be eligible for compensation after social services sent data to an ex partner. Our friendly advisors can offer you free advice and potentially connect you a solicitor from our panel.

• Phone us on 020 8050 6279
• Submit an enquiry by contacting us.
• Use our live chat.

Learn More

Learn more about how to claim compensation for a personal data breach in these resources:

• Check how to make an email data breach claim here.
• Here we answer questions about data breach claims.
• Read more about what the Information Commissioners’ Office is here.

References:

• Find guidance on how to make a complaint to the ICO here.
• Get help from the NHS on anxiety, fear, and panic in this resource.
• Check how to find out what data an organisation has about you in this government resource.

Thank you for reading this guide on claiming after social services sent data to an ex partner.