Privacy Act 2020

Annual Report

Purpose: To identify individuals whose MSD entitlement may have changed because they are receiving ACC payments, and to assist MSD in the recovery of outstanding debts.

ACC disclosure to MSD: ACC selects individuals who have either:

claims where there has been no payment made to the claimant for six weeks (in case MSD needs to adjust its payments to make up any shortfall)
current claims that have continued for two months since the first payment, or
current claims that have continued for one year since the first payment.

For these people, ACC provides MSD with the full name (including aliases), date of birth, address, IRD number, ACC claimant identifier, payment start/end dates and payment amounts.

Compliance: Compliant.

Technical information

Information matching provision	Accident Compensation Act 2001, s.281
Year authorised	1991
Year commenced	2005
Programme type	Confirming eligibility Detecting illegal behaviour Detecting processing errors Locating people
Online transfers	Yes

System description
Each week, ACC sends MSD, by encrypted online transfer, details about individuals who have claims where there has been no payment made to the claimant for six weeks, current claims that have continued for two months since the first payment, and current claims that have continued for one year since the first payment. For these people, ACC provides MSD with the full name (including aliases), date of birth, address, IRD number, ACC claimant identifier, payment start/end dates and payment amounts.

MSD compares the ACC information with its client data to identify individuals receiving payments from both agencies. The matching process produces positive matches that are weighted to indicate the probability that an MSD client is the person in the ACC data. All positive matches are loaded into MSD's AIMOS application.

MSD verifies if individuals who were in receipt of both payments were eligible to receive the MSD entitlement at all and, if so, at the rate it was paid. Where ACC payments have ceased, MSD verifies the rate of the ongoing benefit entitlement.

Recent activity
New match runs started in the reporting period

	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Match runs	52	52	52	53	53	52
Records compared	2,432,089	2,633,957	2,829,065	3,165,699	3,251,234	3,287,371
Number of client cases	4,848	5,228	5,396	6,674	6,915	6,378

All match runs active in the reporting period

Legitimate cases	3,228	3,190	3,262	3,317	4,343	4,725	4,341
Notices of adverse action	1,794	1,901	2,145	2,328	2,593	2,414	2,315
Overpayments established (number)	1,346	1,401	1,180	1,674	1,480	1,554	1,318
Overpayments established	$1,145,535	$1,215,213	$1,176,286	$2,002,029	$2,729,588	$3,032,623	$2,545,849
Challenges	20	20	15	21	43	28	12
Successful challenges	7	15	5	8	25	19	4

Clients entitled to more assistance

Number	150	99	76	121	79	109	123
Arrears payments	$40,668	$26,386	$22,028	$32,005	$22,685	$37,589	$51,895

* Legitimate cases – these do not require any further investigation or action.

Debt recovery notification results

On 30 May 2011, MSD started using information received through this programme to assist them in the recovery of outstanding debts. MSD receives debt recovery notifications for all former (non-current) clients who have outstanding benefit debt. The notifications enable MSD to re-establish contact with debtors, or to maintain accurate contact information.

	2016/17	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Notifications received	5,966	5,559	3,759	11,621	14,432	*
Notices of adverse action	2,079	1,976	1,487	1,520	2,048	3,592
Challenges	17	8	2	1	1	3
Debtors under arrangement to pay	492	412	210	265	149	362
Balance owed under arrangement	$1,886,828	$1,973,732	$1,034,800	$1,556,661	$580,601	$2,341,637
Total recovered	$282,466	$255,382	$217,035	$138,426	$148,703	$211,477

* MSD were manually counting the Notifications Received. MSD have discontinued the manual count pending a technical solution, however MSD have not scheduled work on programming a substitute system.

The utility of this provision was assessed in a report Integrity Intervention Matches (July 2013), and subsequently in the Ministry of Social Development information matching; review of statutory authorities for information matching (Sept 2019).