The IRD and Ministry of Social Development are improving their info sharing capabilities in order to cut down the occurrence of benefit fraud in New Zealand.
Late last week the Minister of Revenue Peter Dunne and the Associate Minister of Social Development Chester Borrows announced that the Inland Revenue Department and the Ministry of Social Development would soon begin sharing greater amounts of information about taxpayers.
Currently the government departments share information about taxpayers only upon individual inquiries, but, after May 31st both departments will have equal access to client data. will. Peter Dunne emphasized that both departments will maintain respect for client privacy, and information will only accessed when it is needed to prove entitlement of taxpayers receive payments from government funded subsidies.
Also commenting on the new rules, Chester Borrows explained that the new information sharing capabilities will help prevent benefit fraud by some taxpayers and minimize the occurrence technical errors by either department.
The Ministers’ announcement comes only one day after an Auckland woman was sentenced to seven month in prison for fraud which led to her to receive over NZD 68 000 in donation credits, Paid Parental Leave and Working for Families Tax Credits.
According to Chester Borrows, in 2011 over 658 people were successfully prosecuted for benefit fraud, which was estimated to have led to over NZD 22 million in illigitimate payment of government funds.
Photo by mrmanc