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IR/MSD Commencement/Cessation Students Programme
Annual Report
Purpose: To identify individuals receiving a student allowance and working at the same time.
Year commenced: 2005
Features: Data is transferred online every month except December. A maximum of 50,000 records is allowed per supply.
MSD disclosure to IR: MSD randomly selects 5,000 records each month relating to students who have been paid an allowance within a specified study period. Each record includes the surname, first initial, date of birth, IRD number and MSD client number, and allowance date information.
IR disclosure to MSD: For the matched records, IR provides MSD with the employee's full name, date of birth, IRD number and MSD client number, employer's name, address, email and phone contact details, and employment commencement and cessation dates.
2010/11 activity:
New match runs started in the reporting period
| Match runs | 11 |
| Records received for matching | 57,075 |
| Possible matches identified | 25,570 |
All match runs active in the reporting period
| Matches that required no further action | 7,725 |
| Notices of adverse action | 15,220 |
| Challenges | 423 |
| Successful challenges | 279 |
| Overpayments established | 5,510 |
| Value of overpayments established | $5,013,074 |
Commentary: The number of challenges has dropped by two thirds (1244 last year). MSD believes work done to improve the clarity of their client letters and better screening processes to identify potential overpayments may be behind the drop in challenges.
Compliance: Compliant
Technical information
| Information matching provision | Tax Administration Act 1994, s.82(1) |
| Year authorised | 2004 |
| Programme type | Confirming eligibility Detecting illegal behaviour Detecting processing errors |
| Unique identifiers | Tax File Number MSD Client Number |
| On-line Transfers | Yes |
System description
This programme and the IR/MSD Commencement Cessation Benefit Programme are authorised under the same statutory authority but operate separately, partly because of different administrative processes for students and beneficiaries.
Each month, MSD sends IR, by secure online transfer, details about a selection (approximately 5,000 records) of MSD student clients that have been paid an allowance within a specified study period. Each record provided to IR includes the surname, first initial, date of birth, IRD number and MSD client number, and student allowance date information.
IR matches the MSD information in a two-stage process. The first stage, called ‘Individual Validation', identifies whether IR holds information about the individual. To do this, IR firstly confirms the existence and validity of the IRD number provided by MSD. IR then matches against the date of birth or surname and first initial provided by MSD. The Individual Validation process must be successful for the information comparison process to take place.
The second stage called ‘Information Comparison' checks if there is an overlap between the period the individual was in receipt of any allowance payments and any periods during which the individual was in receipt of other gross income.
For the matched records, IR returns to MSD the employee's full name, date of birth, MSD and IRD identifiers, employer's name, address, email and phone contact details, employment commencement and cessation dates and monthly gross income amount.
MSD checks its records to determine whether there is an explanation for the apparent discrepancy. If there is not, the individual is sent a notice of adverse action (s.103 notice).
Historical activity
| 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 |
New match runs started in the reporting period
| Match runs | 8 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
| Records compared | 38,000 | 52,000 | 55,000 | 55,000 | 57,978 |
| Number of client cases | 18,559 | 29,644 | 28,247 | 27,639 | 28,283 |
All match runs active in the reporting period
| Legitimate cases | 10,271 | 6,551 | 8,287 | 8,567 | 7,998 |
| Notices of adverse action | 12,650 | 24,703 | 20,286 | 19,090 | 20,613 |
| Overpayments established (number) | 5,536 | 4,782 | 6,601 | 6,163 | 7,099 |
| Overpayments established | $5,607,044 | $4,558,354 | $4,716,655 | $4,278,836 | $5,351,051 |
| Challenges | 192 | 364 | 358 | 513 | 1,244 |
| Challenges successful | 103 | 55 | 171 | 200 | 479 |