Support Income Settlement Assistance (OIB)

Municipality of Amsterdam

If someone receives social assistance benefits, other income must be offset against the benefits. This is because the assistance supplements income up to the assistance standard.

Last change on 27th of November 2024, at 17:03 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
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• Status: In development

General information

Theme

Social Security

Begin date

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Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

If someone receives social assistance benefits, other income must be offset against the benefits. This is because the assistance supplements income up to the assistance standard. The Income Offset Assistance (OIB) support helps create a complete picture of this income. With information from the Inlichtingenbureau, this functionality allows us to set off the net income against the benefit.

The municipality of Amsterdam has a statutory duty to pay the benefit correctly. Anyone who receives or applies for social assistance benefits has a duty to provide information. The Participation Act obliges the benefit recipient to provide all the information the municipality needs to determine the right to assistance. A change in income must therefore be reported to the municipality of Amsterdam.

The municipality of Amsterdam sends a monthly paper income declaration to a benefit recipient who receives income from work. The benefit recipient must return the completed income declaration and indicate whether the income differs from the income data known to the municipality. The benefit recipient must also provide a payslip so that the income consultant can set off the correct amounts. This is error-prone and often causes a lot of stress for the benefit recipient.

Settling income quickly and correctly is in the interest of both the welfare recipient and the municipality. Settlement of income should not create a barrier for a benefit recipient to start working. This is why the municipality has designed the Income Settlement Assistance Support (OIB).

The main purpose of the OIB is to simplify services for the benefit recipient. The functionality retrieves the income data of Amsterdam benefit recipients from the Inlichtingenbureau. A paper income declaration is then no longer needed.

Tests and a pilot in 2021, showed that the data from the Inlichtingenbureau are reliable and can be used for this application. The municipality of Amsterdam is allowed to use this data as it concerns residents on welfare benefits. With this data, the process is more efficient and less error-prone. It reduces the risk of incorrect settlement or late reporting of income.

Considerations

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Human intervention

Sometimes the Information Bureau data do not lead to a proposal for an amount to be offset in the income system. For example, when someone starts working for the first time or if someone receives more than EUR 150 than the previous month. In those cases, the benefit recipient is always contacted. As in the manual process, the income counsellor makes the final decision. As a result, the final outcome can be adjusted at any time and the impact for the benefit recipient is low.

The income counsellors of the Amsterdam municipality use the income system, which processes the data from the Inlichtingenbureau. They can adjust the data in the income system at the request of the benefit recipient. The income consultant makes the final judgement on the data provided by the Inlichtingenbureau. The data from the Intelligence Bureau serves as support and to improve the reliability of the data.

Level of human control:

human-in-the-loop

Risk management

The process has a low risk of errors that may affect a benefit recipient's ongoing entitlement. As soon as a difference in income is detected, the income consultant discusses it with the benefit recipient. Currently, this is the case in about 30 per cent of cases. Based on the discussion, and any additional information, the actual income is recorded in the file used for the income calculation.

The development of this functionality involves personal data, combined datasets, and data processed on a large scale. Given these risk factors, the data is handled very carefully and there are secure connections between the Inlichtingenbureau, the Amsterdam municipality and Wigo4it. The number of employees accessing the functionality is as limited as possible.

Mitigation:

If the data from the Intelligence Bureau do not match or contain ambiguities, an income consultant discusses this with the benefit recipient. The functionality is still under development and the income system cannot currently produce a proposal for settlement for every benefit recipient. Currently, about 75 per cent of incomes are processed through OIB. If necessary, the data is further examined and the actual income is manually recorded in the file used for income calculation.

The Intelligence Bureau is involved in data processing. This data delivery is regulated in article 64 paragraph 4 of the Participation Act. The Suwi Decree in article 5.24 paragraph 3 states that the Intelligence Agency and the college are jointly responsible for the processing.

Wigo4it is also involved in implementing the process. Wigo4it regularly conducts 'pen and hack tests' to check that the Socrates income system cannot be hacked by third parties. Socrates is the IT system that ensures welfare recipients receive the correct benefit. Wigo4it is ISO certified, which means that the risk of a data leak is low.

Operations

Data

The dataset only includes people who receive subsistence benefits from the municipality of Amsterdam and receive income from employment, and/or benefits and pensions.

The Inlichtingenbureau dataset uses a component code that allows us to identify the type of income involved.

Furthermore, the dataset describes the following data:

• Component code
• Name of employer;
• Taxable wage;
• Net wage;
• Use of wage tax credit;
• Holiday pay reservation;
• BSN

A (processor) agreement has been concluded with the supplier Wigo4it. Wigo4it was founded in 2007 by the four largest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht) and together they have developed a functionality to offset income data against benefits in the income system Socrates. This application is used to apply for and provide welfare and income benefits, among other things.

Data collected by:

• Municipality of Amsterdam
• Employee Insurance Agency (UWV)
• Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB)
• Belastingdienst
• Intelligence Bureau (IB) (no source holder, but responsible for technical infrastructure provided by the Bureau Keteninformatisering Werk en Inkomen (BKWI))

Type of data:

Financial information, income from employment or pension, of Amsterdam residents on welfare benefits. Information that an income counsellor needs to be able to offset the income of benefit recipients against the (welfare) benefit.

Technical design

Description of the system architecture

The Amsterdam municipality retrieves a file from the Inlichtingenbureau via a secure portal on a monthly basis. With this, we determine whether people with too low income or assets qualify for benefits or additional provisions, such as special assistance. The Inlichtingenbureau receives the data from the Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (UWV), the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) and the Belastingdienst.

After this, the municipality of Amsterdam delivers the file to the supplier of the income system. They load the following data into the income system:

• Income category (component code)
• Type of income
• Periodicity
• Employer/institution/person
• Payroll tax number
• Reservation VT
• Wage tax credit applied

After this, the income system adds the data from the file to the customer's file. Then the income offset calculation can be made to determine what portion of the benefit should be paid. Earlier, we did this based on the income statement of the benefit recipient.

The income offset is performed only if the above fields are filled correctly. The income statement differs from one employer to another, making it specialist work to properly read the information provided.

If the data is entered correctly, the income system makes a proposal for the income to be offset. An income consultant from the Amsterdam municipality assesses the proposal. In case of (large) deviations compared to the previous month, the municipality contacts the welfare recipient to discuss the difference. If necessary, the income consultant will adjust the data before the settlement is carried out.

If the data are not entered correctly, an income consultant from the Amsterdam municipality will manually enter or complete them. For this, the income consultant will receive a work order in the benefit system. After the income consultant fills in or completes the data, the income system still calculates which part of the benefit should be paid to the citizen so that the citizen's income is supplemented to the benefit level.

The result of the settled income is reflected in the benefit statement for the month in question. The benefit specification is a decision. About the specification, the benefit recipient can always ask for an explanation or clarification. If there is a mistake in the settlement, it can always be corrected by the income counsellor.

Performance:

Between February 2022 and February 2024 and additional research done. This showed that the data is reliable and up-to-date and can therefore be used for income settlement. For benefit recipients who receive income alongside their benefits, in the near future it will no longer be mandatory to submit income online or manually. This obligation often creates uncertainty and problems, as benefit recipients are unable to provide this information in time or the information provided by the benefit recipient is incomplete. Misfiling can also affect the family's total benefit. For example, in the case where part of the family is employed and part of the family is not.

The data from the Intelligence Bureau and the offsetting of income by the income system makes the offsetting of income more reliable. The way this is calculated and the final end result remain the same.