Centrelink has revealed data-matching activities using Medicare data to flag more instances of suspected welfare fraud, but says the activity has been running for some time.
The activity is detailed in a data protocol published by Centrelink on Friday and first noticed by Darren O’Donovan, a senior lecturer in administrative law at La Trobe University.
The data-matching program targets identity, employment or income-based welfare fraud, the protocol states, noting that combining multiple datasets could be more effective than current methods.
“The data-matching program is designed to detect false, manipulated and assumed identities used by customers in submitting multiple claims,” Centrelink said in the protocol [pdf].
“It is also designed to detect false information provided by customers relating to employment, medical eligibility and relationship circumstances.
“A key objective of the data-matching program is to make more comprehensive and strategic use of Medicare data, where matches are used to add intelligence value to cases suspected of being fraudulent.”
The program attempts to match “identities and details” held in Centrelink and Medicare records.
It specifically looks for “individuals who are not recorded as having experienced a series of expected ‘life events’ across both programs.”
“Where expected life events have not occurred this may highlight high-risk identities and the need for further analysis to determine possible fraudulent behaviour and/or record correctness,” Centrelink said.
Centrelink said that “high-risk” individuals are investigated by a fraud team.
If nothing is found in the investigation, the exercise is simply treated as a “data cleansing activity”, whereby Centrelink is able to update its data ..
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