Annual Report
Purpose: To identify current clients who have died so that MSD can cease making payments in a timely manner.
Year commenced: 2004
Features: Data transferred weekly by online transfer.
BDM disclosure to MSD: BDM provides death information for the week prior to the extraction date. The death details include the full name, gender, birth date, death date, home address, death registration number and spouse's full name.
2011/12 activity:
| New match runs started in the reporting period | |
| Match runs | 52 |
| Records received for matching | 30,049 |
| Possible matches identified | 5,031 |
| All processing activity in the reporting period | |
| Matches that required no further action | 2,464 |
| Notices of adverse action | 2,520 |
| Challenges | 0 |
| Overpayments established | 348 |
| Value of overpayments established | $423,183 |
Commentary: An audit, required as a condition on the use of online transfers, found that encryption on DIA's secure drop-box' did not meet the required standard. The issue was resolved after DIA upgraded the level of encryption to an acceptable level.
Compliance: Compliant but see comments.
Technical information
| Information matching provision | Births, Deaths, and Marriages Registration Act 1995, s.78A |
| Year authorised | 2001 |
| Programme type | Confirming eligibility |
| On-line transfers | Yes |
System description
Each week, BDM provides MSD with the details of newly deceased individuals. The death details include full name, gender, date of birth, date of death, home address and spouse's name. To retrieve the BDM file, MSD uses an encrypted connection to access the DIA web server via the Government Logon Service (GLS).
The extracted data is matched against current copies of MSD databases containing beneficiary and student records, held in MSD's data warehouse. The information elements used to match the deaths records against the MSD records include surname, first name and date of birth. The matching algorithm produces match results that are weighted on a scale of one to nine (one being an exact match on all matching criteria, and nine being the lease exact match) to indicate the probability that an MSD client is the person on the deaths register. The match results are transferred into MSD's data matching case management system, AIMOS.
Specialist data matching officers (DMOs) check the match results before sending a notice of adverse action (s.103 notices) to the estate of each deceased person. Once the s.103 notice period has ended, if no challenge to the details in the notice has been received, the DMOs contact the relevant areas of MSD to end the services being provided to each deceased person.
Historical activity
| 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | |
| New match runs started in the reporting period | |||||
| Match runs | 52 | 53 | 52 | 53 | 52 |
| Records received for matching | 28,923 | 29,510 | 29,457 | 29,743 | 29,716 |
| Possible matches identified | 24,147 | 24,505 | 8,589 | 5,173 | 4,969 |
| All match runs active in the reporting period | |||||
| Matches that require no further action | 22,176 | 22,436 | 6,418 | 2,785 | 2,444 |
| Notices of adverse action | 2,002 | 2,069 | 2,171 | 2,327 | 2,401 |
| Overpayments established | 649 | 481 | 459 | 418 | 270 |
| Value of overpayments established | $400,786 | $350,481 | $330,203 | $307,882 | $305,432 |
| Challenges | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Successful challenges | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
