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BDM/MSD Identity Verification Programme
Annual Report
Purpose: To confirm the validity of birth certificates used by clients when applying for financial assistance, and to verify that clients are not on the NZ Deaths' Register.
Year commenced: 2007
Features: The programme is operated daily using data transferred by CD every quarter.
BDM disclosure to MSD: BDM provides birth and death information covering the period of 90 years prior to the extraction date.
The birth details include the full name, gender, birth date and place, birth registration number and full name of both mother and father. The death details include the full name, gender, birth date, death date, home address, death registration number and spouse's full name.
2010/11 activity:
| Benefit applications processed | 404,153 |
| Possible matches identified | 10,524 |
| Matches that required no further action | 1,277 |
| Letters advising update of information | 497 |
| Notices of possible adverse action | 18 |
| Challenges | 0 |
| Overpayments established | 0 |
| Value of overpayments established | 0 |
| Cases referred for further investigation | 36 |
Commentary: MSD is unaware of the reason behind a sharp drop in the number of cases referred for further investigation (184 last year).
Historical data matching exercise completed
Between November 2008 and May 2009, MSD ran a one-off historical data match to identify cases of significant fraud where superannuation payments were continuing to be paid to relatives of the deceased.
Although the matching of historic death records was authorised under an information matching agreement, details about the match run should have been provided to OPC under s.105(3) as part of reporting on matching activities in the 2008/09 year. We requested details from MSD in December 2010 following media coverage about convictions resulting from the match.
The following is a summary of the historic match results.
| Date range of death records | 1 January 1984 - 12 December 2007 |
| Records received for matching | 654,906 |
| Suspected fraud cases progressed | 34 |
| Challenges received | 1 |
| Successful challenges | 1 (client still alive) |
| Overpayments established | 33 |
| Value of overpayments established | $3,048,038 |
Of the 33 cases, 10 were found to be non-fraudulent and 95% of the money overpaid for those cases has been recovered from the bank account or the estate of the deceased. Criminal charges were laid against 16 of the 33, with the remaining seven cases not prosecuted because of insufficient evidence or the individual responsible is now deceased.
Compliance: Compliant.
Technical information
| Information matching provision | Births, Deaths, and Marriages Registration Act 1995, s.78A |
| Year authorised | 2001 |
| Programme type | Auditing data quality Detecting illegal behaviour |
| Unique identifiers | Birth and Death Registration numbers |
System description
Each quarter, BDM provides MSD with an encrypted CD of birth and death records for the 90 years prior to the extract date. The birth details include the full name, gender, birth date and place, birth registration number, and full name of both mother and father. The death details include the full name, gender, birth date, death date, home address, death registration number, and spouse's full name.
Every day MSD compares these birth and death records with copies of MSD client records, held in their data warehouse, for clients who have been granted financial assistance the previous day.
The matching process produces positive matches that are weighted to indicate the probability that an MSD client is the person on the births or deaths registers. The birth records of interest which signal possible fraud are those that do not match. Conversely, the death records of interest which signal possible fraud are those which do match a record of an applicant.
Where an exact birth record match occurs, the Social Welfare Number (SWN) and Birth Record Number (BRN) are added to a register so that those records are excluded from future matching cycles. Where a partial match or no match occurs, those records are transferred from the data warehouse into a separate database in which MSD staff manually scrutinise and verify each record.
If MSD finds any difference between information on the birth record and the information it holds it sends a letter to individuals explaining that their MSD record has been updated. Any difference that involves a change in an individual's benefit eligibility results in a notice of adverse action (s.103 notice) being sent.
MSD also operate the weekly MSD (Deaths)/MSD Deceased Persons programme to identify current clients who have died so that MSD can cease making payments in a timely manner.
| Core results | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 |
| Benefit applications processed | 147,427 | 530,055 | 489,214 | 449,566 |
| Client cases passed to NDMC | 6,182 | 30,809 | 21,582 | 15,033 |
| Legitimate cases | 5,905 | 6,926 | 5,417 | 2,015 |
| Letters advising update of information | 835 | 2,643 | 2,051 | 1,742 |
| Notices of adverse action | 0 | 0 | 54 | 62 |
| Challenges | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0 |
| Overpayments established | n/a | n/a | 1 | 0 |
| Value of overpayments established | n/a | n/a | $28.39 | 0 |
| Cases referred for further investigation | 0 | 1 | 7 | 184 |