Early signalling municipality of Amsterdam

Municipality of Amsterdam

In Amsterdam, we fight against poverty. We try to help people at risk of poverty as early as possible to prevent them from getting into serious debt or being evicted.

Last change on 28th of January 2026, at 12:10 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: DPIA, Privacy Quickscan
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Social Security

Begin date

2022-07

Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

In Amsterdam, we fight against poverty. We try to help people at risk of poverty as early as possible to prevent them from getting into serious debt or being evicted. When problems are still small, advice or a light intervention can be enough. To do that, we need to know who is at risk of getting into debt. That is why we receive notifications from health insurers, housing corporations, energy suppliers, water companies and some public authorities, among others, if they have a customer who is in arrears with their payments. This is also called the 'Amsterdam approach to early signalling'. That the creditor may pass this data to the municipality, including personal data, is stated in the Municipal Debt Assistance Act. After the notification, the municipality supplements the data with information known to us about the reported person. This is information that is needed to determine whether or not someone is a benefit recipient, a client of WPI (the Werk, Participatie en Inkomen department of the municipality of Amsterdam) and to determine the best care provider to forward the notification to. Supplementing the notification with the information known to the municipality is done automatically, at the press of a button. Someone is always needed to trigger a check for data.

The system forwards the notification to a counsellor at the municipality. He or she tries to get in touch with the citizen within 14 days and makes an initial analysis within 28 days. Sometimes there is more at play than arrears. If the citizen accepts help, we make detailed arrangements with him or her. The social worker reports to the central hotline what agreements have been made, so that a creditor knows what the next steps are for the payment arrears.

Considerations

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Human intervention

The system makes a number of choices independently (automated), e.g. to deploy a customer contact centre early warning or to send a text message, e-mail or letter in case of a payment arrears with a low amount, or to which postcode area the notification should be forwarded. During the data linking process, there is one moment of human oversight: linking the creditor's notification with the Poverty Reduction Department's data is automated, but human action is required to initiate the link. From the moment the notification is forwarded to the social workers in the appropriate district, the process is no longer automated. The social service provider visits the reported citizen if the citizen does not contact them himself.

Risk management

The registration and information system called 'RIS Matching' is provided by the company Xxllnc Social, a company that supplies this system to more than 300 municipalities. They regularly carry out so-called 'pen and hack tests' to check that the system cannot be hacked by third parties. They also ensure that personal data is securely managed and not sold to third parties. Security also lies with Xxllnc Social. Security complies with the BIO standard.

Citizens can indicate at any time that they do not want to be listed in the system. After identification by Loket Persoonsgegevens, the implementing bodies are notified to remove the data immediately. In addition, citizens can access the system at any time. This concerns dataset 4, 'linked data' (see: Data). Different rules apply to the data in the Poverty Reduction Department's data warehouse, namely the Urban Framework for Processing Personal Data and the General Data Protection Regulation. The data warehouse and debt arrears reports are two separate systems and debt arrears reports do not enter the data warehouse. The moment the municipality has to remove the data from the RIS Matching system, no debt arrears information remains with the municipality.

Elaboration on impact assessments

Registered pre-IAMA time; ethical leaflet yet to be implemented.

Impact assessment

• Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
• Privacy Quickscan

Operations

Data

Reporting creditors Creditors report arrears in a special system called 'RIS Matching'. This system helps to find the right person and care provider. Only health insurers are allowed to give the BSN. Poverty alleviation data warehouse A municipal employee links the report to the data warehouse of the Poverty Alleviation Department. This helps to find the right social worker. The social worker works with the client manager to have the conversation with the client. Department Determine Department The creditor's notification and the citizen's data are linked together. Each department has a unique code. This code shows whether someone is a client and which department the notification belongs to. Linked data The results of the link are stored in a separate dataset. This contains the creditor's data, the data from the data warehouse and the department code. Feedback to creditor The social worker records in the system whether there has been contact with the citizen and whether appointments have been made. The creditor can see what has happened to his report. For example, whether the report is being processed. They see a green tick if the citizen has accepted help, or a red cross if there has not yet been any contact.

Technical design

Architecture of the model The creditor makes a notification in the registration and information system 'RIS Matching'. Every week, all new notifications are linked (at the push of a button) by a municipal employee to data on the reported person from the data warehouse of the Poverty Reduction Department. There will also be a link with the Basic Registration of Personal Data (BRP). That link allows the municipality to determine whether it is dealing with the right citizen and which social worker can best contact the citizen. It then checks whether there are multiple debt arrears within one household. Up to this point, the process is automated. Next, there are a few options: In the case of a single payment arrears with a low amount, from RIS Matching the notification is classified for personal contact with the Customer Contact Centre Early Warning Amsterdam or an SMS, letter or e-mail is automatically sent (depending on which contact details are available). This automated message refers to the website Link to external pagehttps://amsterdam.nl/geldproblemen . Here, citizens can find the debt assistance services in their district. They can then contact that themselves. If the debt is higher, then based on information about the postcode area, the notification is automatically forwarded to a social worker in the appropriate district or at a WPI department. The social worker tries to contact the citizen within 14 days. The social worker makes an initial analysis within 28 days. Often there is more at play than arrears. If the citizen accepts help, detailed arrangements are made with him or her. If it is not clear from the data whether the person in debt is known to the Poverty Department, the case is marked in the system as 'unclear' and passed on to the Vroeg eropaf team. In the exceptional case that a report does not reach a social worker in the right district, the social worker reports this to the RIS Matching system manager. The latter then transfers the report to the correct care worker.

External provider

Xxllnc Social