Your Personal Information

The Income Support Program is committed to ensuring procedures are in place to protect your personal information.

We need information about you for a number of reasons including:

  • To identify you;
  • To make sure you can get the full range of services available to you from this department and other government and community supports;
  • To protect against fraud and error;
  • To confirm your eligibility for our programs and services; and
  • To ensure that your personal information is shared with other departments and agencies only with your consent.

We collect personal information that may include:

  • Your name, address, age, telephone number;
  • Your marital and family status;
  • Numbers that identify you such as social insurance number and MCP number;
  • Your education and employment history;
  • Your income; and
  • Other information depending on the services you request.

Obtaining your personal information:

You are the first source of personal information. When you apply for income support, you are asked to sign an authorization form which allows the department to access personal information from other sources including:

  • Service Canada;
  • Canada Revenue Agency;
  • Workplace NL;
  • Banks, credit unions, credit bureaus, other financial institutions and employers;
  • Other government departments; and
  • Other income support programs in Canada.

We ensure your personal information remains secure:

Maintaining the security of your information is one of our highest priorities and only authorized personnel have access to your information. There are procedures in place to protect your information. Our security procedures apply to both paper and electronic formats of your information and also apply to the contracts and agreements we sign with outside service providers.

You also have rights and responsibilities concerning your personal information:

  • You have the right to know how your personal information is used and protected;
  • You have the right to see the information we have collected about you and received from you;
  • If you choose to withdraw your authorization which permits us to collect information about you, it means you will not be eligible to collect income support benefits;
  • It is your responsibility to provide complete and accurate information when you apply for, or continue to receive supports and services from the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development.