The information you provide in your housing benefit application must be supported by appropriate evidence. If bank statements are submitted, the purpose of the transfer or the recipient of a transfer—but not the amount—may be blacked out if it concerns special categories of personal data within the meaning of Article 9 of the GDPR (information about racial and ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health, sexual life, or sexual orientation).

If the members of the household do not cooperate or do not cooperate fully in clarifying the facts, the housing allowance authority may also obtain information or collect data

• from other agencies in connection with legal relationships between these agencies and the members of the household (e.g., landlords/tenancy agreements, employment income, banks, and credit institutions) and from other persons with regard to possible legal claims against these persons or the prerequisites for such claims (e.g., parents or [former/separated] spouses who are obliged to pay maintenance) in accordance with Section 23 of the Housing Allowance Act (WoGG),
• from other social security agencies (e.g., employment agency, job center, family benefits office, maintenance advance office, offices for educational assistance) in accordance with Sections 3, 69 (1) No. 1 SGB X, to determine the extent to which, for example, other social benefits have been applied for, approved, or discontinued, or the extent to which there is a prospect of these benefits being approved, and
• from the tax office regarding income and financial circumstances pursuant to Section 21 (4) SGB X and – in particular for self-employed household members – regarding income tax returns or income tax assessments already issued pursuant to Section 31a (1) No. 1 letter b double letter bb or No. 2 AO.

The costs of requests for information from banks and credit institutions must be reimbursed to the housing allowance authority by the person subject to the obligation to cooperate (cf. Section 23 (4) sentence 4 WoGG).

In order to prevent and detect unlawful claims for housing benefits, regular data comparisons are carried out for all household members, including in automated form, in particular with the pension insurance data center (Section 33 (2) and (5) WoGG in conjunction with Sections 16 to 21 WoGV). For example, it may be checked whether unemployment benefit II is being paid while housing benefit is being received, whether the person is in employment subject to social insurance contributions or marginal employment, or the amount of investment income for which an exemption order has been issued. It is also possible to check with the registration authority for registered addresses, housing status, and the date of re-registration.

In addition, it is possible to request account information from the Federal Central Tax Office in accordance with Section 93 (8) sentence 1 no. 1 letter e AO.

Suspected cases of fraud are always reported to the public prosecutor's office.

The data collected for processing the application will be used in anonymized form (i.e., without names and addresses) for housing benefit statistics. The data may be transferred to the Rhineland-Palatinate State Statistical Office, the Federal Statistical Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, and the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning for this purpose (Sections 34 to 36 WoGG).

For the purpose of conducting legal proceedings, including criminal proceedings, personal data is transferred to the police authorities, public prosecutors, and courts under the conditions set out in Sections 68 and 69 of SGB X.

Personal data is deleted by the housing allowance authority when it is no longer required for the implementation of the Housing Allowance Act (cf. Section 33 (3) sentence 3, (4) sentence 2, and (5) sentences 6 and 7, § 35 (2) sentence 2 WoGG, § 19 (4) and § 20 WoGV) and legal retention periods have expired (cf. Part A No. 24.01 Housing Benefit Administrative Regulation: retention for a maximum of ten years, e.g. to enable decisions on retroactive changes or in the event of illegality, Section 27 (4) sentence 3 and Section 33 (2) sentence 2 WoGG, Section 45 (3) sentence 4 SGB X). Within the aforementioned periods, there is no right to erasure under Article 17 GDPR.

If you would like information about the personal data stored about you, please contact your local housing benefit authority. You can also consult the data protection officer. Upon request, you will be provided with an extract of the data stored about you.

If you find that the data stored about you is incorrect or incomplete, you can request that it be corrected or completed immediately at any time.

Under the conditions of Art. 18 GDPR in conjunction with § 84 (3) SGB X, you can request a restriction on the processing of your data. This may be considered, for example, if the housing benefit authority no longer needs the data, but you need it to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims and deletion of the data would impair your interests worthy of protection.

In connection with housing benefit processing, there is no right to data portability under Art. 20 GDPR, as data processing in housing benefit is in the public interest (cf. Art. 21 (3) GDPR). There is also no right to object to the processing of personal data under Article 21(1) GDPR, as housing benefit regulations provide for the processing of personal data (cf. Section 84(5) SGB X).

If your personal data has been processed (i.e., collected in particular) on the basis of your express consent, you can revoke this consent at any time in accordance with Art. 7 (3) GDPR. However, this does not affect the lawfulness of the processing of your data until your revocation.

If you disagree with the information provided by your housing benefit authority or with its processing of personal data, you can lodge a complaint with the state data protection officer as the supervisory authority.

Responsible party:

Office for Social Services

Town Hall (Lauteren Wing)
Kaiserstrasse 3-5
55116 Mainz

Phone: +49 6131 12-3620
Fax: +49 6131 12-2962
Email: amt-fuer-soziale-leistungenstadt.mainzde

(Official) Data Protection Officer:

Mainz City Administration
Official Data Protection Officer

City Hall, Jockel-Fuchs-Platz 1
55116 Mainz

Phone: +49 6131 12-2216
Email: datenschutzstadt.mainzde

State Data Protection Officer:

State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Rhineland-Palatinate,

Postal address: P.O. Box 3040,
55020 Mainz,

Visiting address: Hintere Bleiche 34,
55116 Mainz,

Phone: +49 6131 208-2449,
Fax: +49 6131 208-2497
Email: poststelledatenschutz.rlpde