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Customs/IR Child Support Alerts Programme
• Annual Report
• Technical information
• System description
• Historical activity
Annual Report
Purpose: To identify parents in serious default[1] of their child support liabilities who leave for or return from overseas, so that IR can take steps to recover the outstanding debt.
Year commenced: 2008
Features: Data transferred in close to real-time by online transfer.
IR disclosure to Customs: IR provides Customs with the full name, date of birth and IRD number of parents in serious default of their child support liabilities.
Customs disclosure to IR: For high value debtors (and selected other debtors), Customs provides IR with the person's arrival card information. This includes the full name, date of birth, date and time and direction of travel, including New Zealand port and prime overseas port (last port of call for arrivals and first port of call for departures).
2008/09 activity:[2]
| Possible matches identified | 6,928 |
| Arrival cards received for liable parents | 1,219 |
| Number of liable parents | 917 |
| Number of liable parents where contact has been made | 732 |
| New contact details updated | 394 |
| Existing contact details confirmed | 332 |
| Contact details not useful | 191 |
| Cards that did not meet the matching criteria | 22 |
Compliance: Compliant.
Technical information
| Information matching provision | Customs and Excise Act 1996, s.280K |
| Year authorised | 2007 |
| Programme type | Locating people |
| Unique identifiers | Tax File Number |
| On-line transfers | Yes |
System description
This programme involves a two-way exchange between Inland Revenue and Customs using a secure electronic near real-time business to business (B2B) link involving digital certificates and encryption.
Inland Revenue sends the full name, date of birth, and IRD number of individuals who are in serious default[3] of their child support obligations to Customs for storage in either a Person of Interest (POI) list or an Alert (ALS) list. Selection for the POI or ALS list is determined primarily by the level of child support debt involved, with the highest value debtors included on the ALS list.
The matching process for the POI list involves a character-by-character comparison of the family name, given names (and any aliases), and date of birth. Customs only supply POI information to IR where it has determined that there is an exact match result between information on the POI list and passenger movement information generated when an individual passes through Customs. For people that match the details on the POI register, Customs supply IR their full name, date of birth, and IRD number, along with the date, time and direction of travel, including New Zealand port and prime overseas port (last port of call for arrivals and first port of call for departures). POI alerts are automatically added into the IR administrative records and an email is sent to a generic email address for further action by Child Support Officers.
The matching process for the ALS list uses Customs standard matching algorithm that converts names into an alpha-numeric code for matching against alerts. An alert is only generated for "A" level matches, which requires a 91-100% match outcome based on a weighting system.
For people that meet this match threshold, Customs supply IR the same information as in the POI process above, and also include the match outcome rating achieved. In addition to the electronic (B2B) information received from Customs for POI and ALS matches, a copy of the front side of the arrival card for all possible ALS matches is faxed to IR.
All ALS match information received from Customs is sent to a holding bay to await verification by a Child Support Officer before the information is updated into the IR administrative records. The action taken by a Child Support Officer on the information received is determined by IR internal processes and policies. All avenues currently available to Child Support Officers are utilised in an attempt to make contact and obtain payment.
No notice of adverse action is sent for this programme[4]. The rationale put forward by Inland Revenue to forego sending a notice was that were a notice be provided to a liable parent, this may have the effect of enabling them to leave New Zealand earlier than anticipated, making enforcement action against the defaulter more difficult.
Historical activity
Matching programme started in 2008/09.
[1] Serious default means having an amount of financial support debt due and owing to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and satisfying criteria agreed by the Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner in consultation with the Customs' Chief Executive (Customs and Excise Act 1996, s.280J).
[2] Activity for this programme is for the 12 months from 1 September 2008 to 31 August 2009.
[3] Serious default means the state of having an amount of financial support debt due and owing to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and satisfying criteria agreed by the Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner in consultation with the Chief Executive (Customs and Excise Act 1996, s.280J).
[4] A legislative amendment to section 103 of the Privacy Act (s.103(1c)), enacted alongside the legislation authorising this programme allows IR to initiate adverse action without sending a notice of adverse action (section 103 notice).