This privacy impact assessment (PIA) assesses the implications for acquiring FamilyBoost childcare payment data for enabling production of official statistics and research.
Download the document below, or read the recommendations and summary online.
Recommendations from Stats NZ's privacy team
There are no recommendations for the acquiring of FamilyBoost childcare payment data from Inland Revenue into the IDI that are different to or not covered in the Integrated Data Infrastructure: Overarching privacy impact assessment.
These risks are system wide and not specific to any dataset.
- Individuals being re-identified in the data
- Unfavourable public perception of data integration
- Maintaining data security
- Data used for non-approved purposes.
The procedures in place to mitigate the identified risks include:
- the application of the 'five safes' framework
- the removal of unique identifying information from the datasets researchers can access
- the strict confidentiality checking of the output of analysis
- the stringent application process that researchers must follow to gain access to the IDI data, including the need to:
- seek ethics approval for all projects wanting to access health data
- meet strict access protocols in order to access the IDI data
- demonstrate that the proposed research has a statistical purpose and is for the public good.
If a review determines that the benefits no longer outweigh the risks, then the integrated datasets will be archived or destroyed (as required by the laws governing the archiving of government information).
Currently, the public benefits of the proposed data integration outweigh the potential privacy concerns. Well-established processes are in place to mitigate the risks identified, and these will continue to be reviewed and updated.
Summary
FamilyBoost is a new childcare payment that will be made to eligible households, to help with the rising costs of early childhood education (ECE).
Inland Revenue (IR) is administering FamilyBoost with those eligible being able to claim via myIR on a quarterly basis.
Eligibility for FamilyBoost is dependent upon on who cares for the child/children, household income, and the type of childcare paid for.
Registrations for FamilyBoost commenced in mid-September 2024. From 1 October 2024, those eligible have been able to submit their first quarterly claim for the period 1 July-30 September.
Stats NZ has identified this FamilyBoost data as being of considerable value in enabling the production of official statistics, and for research. This encompasses relevant Stats NZ social and economic subject matter areas, and the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI).
Stats NZ is to collect the FamilyBoost data monthly from IR for the production of official statistics and for research under the Data and Statistics Act 2022.
Stats NZ has worked with IR to determine the relevant dataset variables to be supplied for our statistical and research purposes.
ISBN 978-1-991307-48-4 (online)
