Some tenants are claiming they have not been efficiently checked up on from Watford Community Housing following a leak of over 3,500 tenants’ personal information.

But Watford Community Housing reaffirm that all customers impacted by the leak were sent a letter to ensure they were given the appropriate advice.

The letter is said to have included comprehensive information about the support package offered, including the provision of free identity protection services following the incident.

This would have meant customers would have been contacted and offered support through post, through email and information was offered on their website.

The blunder was made by Watford Community Housing when it sent out an email on March 23 to all tenants to inform them of changes to services during the coronavirus outbreak.

But attached to the email was a spreadsheet that contained personal information of the housing association's 3,545 tenants.

The information included full names, gender, addresses, mobile numbers, email addresses, ethnic origins, religion, and sexual orientation.

One tenant previously told the Observer that the leaked information put many vulnerable tenants in “life changing and life-threatening situations”.

Now two further tenants are claiming that other than an email sent out, “no offer of help” was made in a sufficient way.

One of the tenants, who classes as vulnerable and relies on keeping her identity hidden, was in “shock and horror” after seeing her details in the public domain which exposed her address to specific individuals that now put her at risk.

She said: “I did inbox the comms page a couple of days later, and whoever was running it that night said to just phone in. But then when I looked at what everyone else said on Facebook, the phones were down.”

The Observer can confirm that communications were down at least on March 24, due to what was described as “training”.

She continued: “It was also on a night of lockdown, which meant I couldn’t even go round to see a friend and sort my own head out.”

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The tenant says that the trust are aware of her vulnerability, and she says staff should have personally rung and attended to the needs of those vulnerable.

She added: “An email is a faceless, cold hearted thing. It really just feels like none of the staff care. It wasn’t heartfelt, it was a faceless apology.

“They could have actually offered or rang round everyone. Yes there’s 3,500, but there’s ways it could have been done. We were all in lockdown, staff would have been sitting around not doing as much – it could have been done.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) conducted a review of the incident and issued some recommendations to prevent a similar incident but does not consider any regulatory action should be taken at this stage.

The tenant told the Observer she was unhappy with the conclusion.

She said: “I think the ICO not saying a lot is worrying, because it seems like the trust weren’t forced to say a proper apology.

“It lets it (Watford Community Housing) to be like ‘we don’t care’, we don’t care how vulnerable you are, we don’t care if there’s a murderer living next door who knows where you are.”

The tenant claims one tenant was offered a Ring doorbell which would offer video surveillance and provide reassurance to that person.

And she believes a gesture as small as that should have been offered to everyone, to show that Watford Community Housing prioritise the safety of their tenants.

She said: “If they came to me and asked ‘what can we do to help’, I probably would have taken it. If they said ‘you can have a doorbell, or we’ll move you’ – I would have taken it.

“I didn’t want to go through a solicitor, but I had no choice. I had to stand up and be counted.”

What did Watford Community Housing say?

A spokesperson from Watford Community Housing said: “At every stage, we’ve encouraged people to contact us if they have any concerns. Calls were subsequently received following our communications, so we are confident that letters and emails were received.

“We have been actively working with all customers who have contacted us and those we know to be vulnerable. Naturally, we are reliant to some extent on customers contacting us if they feel they are vulnerable – but in our communications we’ve regularly encouraged anyone with concerns to contact us.”

When asked if the trust believes that customers who have asked for help were satisfied with the outcome, the spokesperson said: “We don’t believe it would be appropriate to speak on behalf of our customers but, as we’ve reiterated in all our communications, we are extremely sorry that this has happened and our focus has been on putting things right and providing comprehensive support.

“We implemented a number of measures to accommodate individuals’ needs, including setting up a dedicated call centre advice line, and offering free identity and credit monitoring.

“We have always been clear that if, after reading the letter we sent and accessing the services we had provided, individuals felt that their needs had not been met then they could contact us to consider their situation further.

“We take the security of personal data extremely seriously and have been reassessing our systems and procedures to guard against any such error happening again.”

Anyone impacted by the incident and feels they are vulnerable to anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse, harassment, hate crime or anything else is asked to email CustomerRelationsTeam@wcht.org.uk.

The trust launched a website and FAQ about the incident at https://www.wcht.org.uk/data-incident/