‘Big Sister’ to watch over claims for welfare

New system called MISS will let State agencies swap data on dole

BIG Sister is now watching what you’re declaring when applying for benefits.

Using a new system known as MISS, government departments and agencies will finally be able to swap information on applications for meanstested payments.

And the social welfare office has also created its own little red book for storing everyone’s details, called MAO.

The development opens the door in the future to largescale means-testing of benefits, such as child benefit.

But substantial work would still need to be done to meanstest child benefit, taking up to 18 months.

And a decision would have to be taken on whose income to measure, as the payment is usually made to the mother.

But the old excuse about “computers not talking to each other” has been solved with two new systems in the Department of Social Protection.

The department has built a central database of all benefits received by every recipient in the country and all meanstesting information.

Previously, each individual social welfare scheme operated independently.

The sophisticated new system for logging and storing information, called Means Assessment Object or MAO, creates a single file for every social welfare recipient.

The file shows all the means-testing data and lists payments received.

A second computer system, called MISS or Means Information Sharing Service, allows this information to be shared with other organisations also conducting means tests to qualify for schemes.

Agencies will be able to check if applicants are telling the truth when applying for schemes.

But it will also mean members of the public won’t be repeatedly asked to provide the same information.

The benefits of the system include the reuse of information, the removal of duplication and faster processing of claims.

The service will be up and running by the end of this year or the start of 2014, initially with a small number of relevant departments and bodies.

A range of State bodies carry out means testing, including the Department of Social Protection, the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture and local authorities.

Although the various agencies use different criteria for determining eligibility, the type of information on income is often the same.

The Department of Social Protection said both projects are on track with internal and external uses.

“DSP has developed an internal IT application (known as the Means Assessment Object — MAO) which allows for the storing and re-use of means information by its schemes.

“DSP has now developed a prototype web service facility, known as the Means Information Sharing Service (MISS), which will allow for the sharing and reuse of information already contained in the MAO with other agencies,” a spokesperson said.

But there are still substantial obstacles to going down the route of means-testing for child benefit.

More than 600,000 families receive child benefit, but only about half are receiving another social welfare payment.

This means that the Department of Social Protection would have to start a massive operation of collecting the income details of another 300,000 families.

Aside from the logistics, there are also major policy and legal issues around whose income to measure.