Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

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Corrections/MSD Prisoners Programme

• Annual Report
• Technical information
• System description
• Historical activity

Annual Report

Purpose: To detect people who are receiving income support payments while imprisoned.
Year commenced: 1995

Features: Data transferred each day by online transfer.

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

2008/09 activity:

New match runs started in the reporting period

Match runs	321
Records received for matching	10,261,871
Possible matches identified	14,801

All match runs active in the reporting period

Matches that required no further action	7,260
Notices of adverse action	7,520
Challenges	16
Successful challenges	11
Overpayments established	2,233
Value of overpayments established	$443,786

Commentary: There has been a dramatic increase in the number of records disclosed by Corrections to MSD. This is because changes were made to the programme in November 2008, including:

• all prisoners on muster are now included in the match rather than just new arrivals;
• all prisoner alias names are included, linked to their true name to reduce the possibility that an innocent person's benefit is suspended; and
• the programme has been extended to match against MSD's student records, following the discovery that prisoners were fraudulently accessing the Government's student loan scheme.

MSD's total overpayments have dropped by about 75 percent, from an annual average of $1.8 million, because MSD now immediately suspends benefits without waiting for a response to the notice of adverse action[1]. This change in process aims to reduce prisoner debt levels and their impact on prisoner rehabilitation.

Compliance: Compliant.

Technical information

Information matching provision	Corrections Act 2004, s.180
Year authorised	1991
Programme type	Confirming eligibility Detecting illegal behaviour Locating people
On-line Transfer	Yes

System description

Each day, Corrections transfers information to MSD about all prisoners who are received, on muster, or released from prison. The information is extracted from the Corrections Analysis and Reporting System (CARS). CARS receive its information from the Integrated Offender Management System (IOMS), also operated by Corrections.

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.

The transfer process involves Corrections sending a file by secure online transfer to a third party service provider which holds the file in a "post box". The system is set up so that only authorised MSD users can access the Corrections file held at the service provider web services location.

The MSD matching algorithm uses name and date of birth information to determine a match. Each positive match receives a match level rating ranging from match level one where the surname, fist name, second name, and date of birth all agree, to match level 13 where there is a less exact match.

Since May 2008, MSD have been immediately suspending benefits[2] 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.

Historical activity 

2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

2007/08

New match runs started in the reporting period

Match runs	49	54	79	257
Records compared	92,747	106,008	106,742	125,977
Client cases	11,239	11,847	12,815	14,065

All match runs active in the reporting period

Legitimate cases	5,493	5,971	7,680	9,383
Notices of adverse action	5,745	5,776	5,185	4,702
Overpayments established (number)	3,205	4,061	2,587	4,884[3]
Overpayments established	$1,661,529	$2,154,573	$1,412,735	$2,175,706
Challenges	53	36	21	27
Challenges successful	41	32	15	20

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[1] Authority to immediately suspend a benefit prior to sending a notice of adverse action for this programme was authorised by legislation in April 2008 and implemented in May 2008.
[2] Immediately suspension of benefits for this programme was authorised by Parliament in April 2008. Despite the authorisation MSD do not immediately suspend sole parent beneficiaries who still receive the protection of the five day notice period.
[3] The number of overpayments established exceeds the number of notices of adverse action sent because some overpayments related to notices of adverse action sent in the previous period.