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Annual Report
Purpose: To identify current clients who have married so that MSD can update client records and reassess their eligibility for benefits and allowances.
BDM disclosure to MSD: BDM provides marriage information covering the week prior to the extraction date. The marriage details include the full names of each spouse (including name at birth if different from current name), their birth dates and addresses, and registration and marriage dates.
Compliance: Compliant.
Technical information
| Information matching provision | Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021, s 112 |
| Year authorised | 2001 |
| Year commenced | 2005 |
| Programme type | Confirming eligibility |
| Online transfers | Yes |
System description
Each week, BDM provides MSD with the details of newly married individuals. The marriage details include marriage registration date, marriage date and first name, surname, date of birth and address for both spouses. To retrieve the BDM file, MSD uses an encrypted connection to access the DIA web server via the Government Logon Service (GLS).
MSD compares the marriage information with its active client data. The matching process produces match results that are weighted to indicate the probability that an MSD client is the person on the marriages register.
The match results are transferred into MSD's data matching case management system, AIMOS where they are manually checked before any action is taken. These preliminary checks may reveal, for instance, that the beneficiary has already notified MSD of the marriage.
Recent activity
| 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | |
| New match runs started in the reporting period | |||||||
| Match runs | 51 | 52 | 52 | 51 | 52 | 52 | 52 |
| Records compared | 46,972 | 47,680 | 45,588 | 38,193 | 36,715 | 33,431 | 45,058 |
| Client cases | 1,758 | 1,760 | 1,795 | 1,584 | 1,963 | 1,619 | 1,979 |
| All match runs active in the reporting period | |||||||
| Legitimate cases* | 612 | 640 | 572 | 544 | 581 | 458 | 630 |
| Notices of adverse action | 1,147 | 1,136 | 1,223 | 1043 | 1,354 | 1,191 | 1,356 |
| Overpayments established (number) | 570 | 413 | 533 | 344 | 538 | 551 | 622 |
| Overpayments established | $365,769 | $305,022 | $413,067 | $400,868 | $539,745 | $512,674 | $670,396 |
| Successful challenges | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
* Legitimate cases – these do not require any further investigation or action.
The utility of this provision was assessed in a report Review of statutory authorities for information matching (September 2017), and subsequently in the Ministry of Social Development information matching; review of statutory authorities for information matching (Sept 2019).
