Privacy Act 2020

Annual Report

Purpose: To detect people who are receiving income support payments while imprisoned, and to assist MSD in the recovery of outstanding debts.

Corrections disclosure to MSD: Each day, Corrections sends MSD details about all prisoners who are received, on muster or released from prison. Details disclosed include the full name (including aliases), date of birth, prisoner unique identifier and prison location, along with incarceration, parole eligibility date and statutory release date.

Compliance: Not compliant - minor technical issue. Files used to transfer the data are deleted after 30 days rather than within 28 days as specified.

Technical information

Information matching provision	Corrections Act 2004, s.180
Year authorised	1991
Year commenced	1995
Programme type	Confirming eligibility Detecting illegal behaviour Locating people
Online transfer	Yes

System description

Each day, Corrections extracts from their Corrections Analysis and Reporting System (CARS) details of all prisoners who are received, on muster, or released from prison and send this information by secure online transfer to a ‘post box’ held by a third party service provider. Prisoner details disclosed include the full name (including aliases), date of birth, prisoner unique identifier, prison location, along with incarceration, parole eligibility, and statutory release dates.

MSD accesses the Corrections file held at the service provider web services location and import it into their systems using a secure communication channel. The MSD matching process uses name and date of birth information to determine a match. Each positive match receives a rating ranging from match level one where the surname, first name, second name, and date of birth all agree, to match level 13 where there is a less exact match.

To minimise overpayments, MSD immediately suspends benefit and student payments rather than sending a notice of adverse action and waiting five working days before taking the action. Notices (following the suspension action) are still sent to beneficiaries at their home addresses with a duplicate addressed to the prison.

Recent activity

	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
New match runs started in the reporting period
Match runs	363	364	365	361	363
Records compared	19,361,290	19,224,524	16,965,337	15,080,923	15,591,496
Client cases	13,703	14,539	15,423	14,001	16,244
All match runs active in the reporting period
Legitimate cases*	3,058	2,415	3,138	3,063	3,973
Notices of adverse action	10,655	12,147	12,387	10,971	12,328
Overpayments established (number)	3,696	3,875	3,980	3,501	4,230
Overpayments established	$654,749	$555,489	$517,626	$489,084	$780,084
Challenges	6	3	9	2	0
Successful challenges	1	2	3	2	0
Arrears cases					1
Arrears amount $					$45

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

Debt recovery notification results

In 2011/12, MSD started reporting on its use of Corrections data to recover debts from former clients. The notifications enable MSD to re-establish contact with debtors, or to maintain accurate contact information.

	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Notifications received	5,193	1,815	19,684	16,625	*
Notices of adverse action	1,011	477	81	141	417
Challenges	0	0	0	0	0
Debtors under arrangement to pay	24	14	3	3	5
Balance owed under arrangement	$123,715	$72,253	$49,944	$2,047	$20,233
Total recovered	$7,770	$3,717	$537.29	$2,468	$4,302

*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).