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Audit Commission > National Fraud Initiative > Private sector > Services > Real time data matching

Real time data matching

In the NFI 2008/09 national report the Audit Commission set out the strategic objectives for NFI. These included placing greater emphasis on fraud prevention. This strategy is aligned with the recommendation of the Smarter Government Public Sector Fraud Taskforce which recommended a shift in focus towards fraud prevention (A Fresh Approach to Combating Fraud in the Public Sector, in March 2010).

More recently the Cabinet Office Counter Fraud Taskforce has recommended that the NFI should be deployed more widely as a near real-time tool to enable data matching between departments and between central and local government (Eliminating Public Sector Fraud: Counter Fraud Taskforce interim report - June 2011).

The Commission has launched NFI real time data matching. Sitting alongside the established batch data matching work of NFI the new real time data matching assists participants in effectively targeting fraud prevention. By matching data at the point of application NFI identifies anomalies that may indicate fraud before any payments are made.

There are many areas where NFI real time matching brings clear and significant benefits to fraud prevention efforts. We therefore have phased the release, to focus efforts on areas of greatest risk/benefit.

Phase 1 (complete) – Real Time Data Matching, preventing fraud against financial institutions

In September 2011 NFI launched its real time data matching service designed to prevent fraud against financial institutions by identifying where an applicant has falsely declared they have a right to reside and/or work in the UK.

Phase 2

Phase two of the flexible matching service roll out will mean that by 31 March 2013 more data will be available for matching against, such as:

  • Key NFI datasets collected for the 2012/13 two yearly exercise; and
  • UK Border Agency immigration data, Student loan data and the Metropolitan Police’s Amberhill data, refreshed periodically.

Beyond

There are many on-going discussions about how best to use this powerful new tool. As these discussions progress they will inform the NFI real time strategy.