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Annual Report
Purpose: To verify eligibility for assistance.
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. Name change information includes the date a name was last used. The death details include the full name, gender, birth date, death date, home address, death registration number and spouse's full name.
Compliance: Compliant.
Technical information
| Information matching provision | Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995, s.78A |
| Year authorised | 2001 |
| Year commenced | 2007 |
| 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. Name change information includes the date a name was last used. 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.181 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 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
| Benefit applications processed | 237,650 | 229,713 | 240,527 | 261,141 | 269,156 | 209,083 |
| Possible matches identified | 7,035 | 6,773 | 7,335 | 9,646 | 10,211 | 8,015 |
| Legitimate cases* | 1,705 | 1,626 | 1,308 | 1,013 | 841 | 527 |
| Notices of possible adverse action | 6 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Challenges | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Overpayments established | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
*Legitimate cases - these do not require any further investigation or action.
The programme was amended in May 2018 to incorporate name change information.
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).
