NOTICE OF A DATA MATCHING PROGRAM
Services Australia
Services Australia intends to enhance data matching practices between Centrelink and Medicare programs. Services Australia will match identities and details held in Centrelink records with those held in Medicare records.
The objectives of the data-matching program are to:
- make sure Centrelink payments are only made to people who are entitled to those payments
- provide rigour around the authenticity of customer identities
- protect personal information from identity theft
- detect and investigate fraud
- provide net savings by detecting overpayments and recovering debt
- help the whole-of-government approach to identify serious and complex fraud so the integrity of payments and taxpayer expectations are met
- increase public awareness and raise voluntary compliance.
The following information in relation to customers who appear on both the Centrelink and Medicare databases will be data matched:
- standardised first name
- nickname/alias
- standardised surname
- gender
- date of birth
- address
- email address
- telephone number, and
- Medicare Benefits Schedule Usage (date of last service).
Services Australia expects to match approximately 9.8 million unique records held in its Centrelink database. Based on fraud criteria, Services Australia anticipates it will examine approximately 5,000-9,000 records per year.
A protocol document describing this program has been developed with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Copies of the document are available from:
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/organisations/about-us/publications-and-resources/centrelink-data-matching-activities
Services Australia adheres to the Australian Information Commissioner’s Guidelines on Data Matching in Australian Government Administration which includes standards for data matching to protect the privacy of individuals. The Services Australia privacy policy is available from:
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/organisations/about-us/publications-and-resources/privacy-policy