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- The Department of Human Services or DHS
and its challenge is on faster access to support
for people experiencing family and domestic violence,
or FDV, has been accepted
as one of the five challenges in the second round.
DHS identified a need to assist and empower customers
experiencing FDV to make informed decisions
that require access to information
and necessary social and economic support
to confidently move forward in their lives.
Many women and men understand their options
for dealing with domestic violence
and find themselves with limited access to money,
personal paperwork, and the identification documents
required to apply for social support payment
and access to services.
Currently, it can take DHS a number of weeks
to process some payment claims
which can cause financial stress
and potentially restrict options for people
who are living with domestic violence.
DHS is looking for a secure and scalable technological
solution that will enable people experiencing family
and domestic violence
to access support quickly.
The solution needs to be able to securely share
this information between trusted government
and non government organisations to enable quick access
to support for women and men affected by and living
with family and domestic violence.
Here's a story that's all too familiar
to DHS staff servicing family
and domestic violence customers.
Jen's a mother of two young kids under six.
She's been in an abusive relationship for too many years.
Recently, her young son saw something he shouldn't have.
She's had enough.
She makes a snap decision, grabs the kids and runs.
She has no support because he's kept her isolated.
She has no money because he controlled the finances.
She recalled someone saying Centrelink might help.
A few days later she goes to an office.
She feels shame and guilt around her experiences
and she doesn't share her true situation
with the Centrelink staff.
Because she has no identification,
they can't progress any further.
She's turned away until she can prove who she is.
The department's current process requires
someone applying for support payments to,
firstly, show identification to prove who they are
and secondly, supply original, complete and accurate
documents to verify their identity.
While Centrelink and can offer alternative
identity assessments, navigating this and getting someone
on the right payment takes time
before the applicant sees any money.
This delay limits opportunities for those
seeking assistance with family and domestic violence.
Let's have a look at the overview of the challenge.
DHS is an Australian government department that provides
essential services to almost every Australian.
DHS comes into contact with the Australian public
via Medicare, social welfare, age care, child support
and crisis recovery.
They assist people to meet life's
most fundamental challenges.
Family and domestic violence creates complex economic issues
for those in abusive relationships.
Financial abuse occurs in approximately 99% of cases
and is the primary reason victims stay in,
or return to, abusive partners.
Family violence is the single largest driver
of homelessness for women with 60% at risk
due to financial dependence on their attacker.
Here's what we know at a glance.
One in six women and one in 16 men have experienced physical
and or sexual violence by cohabitating partner
since the age of 15.
We also know that family violence is the single largest
driver of homelessness for women, with 60% at risk
after fleeing a violent relationship.
Many living with family and domestic violence
have limited money, personal paperwork
and identification documents needed to access services.
We also know that disconnected services make it challenging
for people experiencing family and domestic violence
to navigate and access support.
The cost of violence against women and their children
in Australia is $22 billion.
Mobile phones can often be the most important tool
people experiencing FDV they have at their disposal
providing access to safe and secure communications.
There is the opportunity to improve the service offer
in meeting the needs of those living with, and affected by,
FDV to provide fast access to welfare payments
and connections to services
and currently, the time taken to process payment claims
varies which can delay support for those affected by family
and domestic violence.
So how might we provide fast and secure access
to financial support for people experiencing
domestic violence.
For those escaping violence, they require simple, fast,
safe access to welfare payments to enable them to leave
an abusive relationship.
Many fleeing violence leave with limited access to money,
personal paperwork and the identification documents
required to apply for Social Security payments
and access to services.
Waiting periods for income support payments vary
depending on a number of factors.
This is further complicated if the customer cannot
readily access the required paperwork and then
has to navigate other government and non government
support services, repeatedly explaining their situation.
This can all cause financial distress and potentially
influence a person to return to an abusive situation
as they don't have the financial means
to survive independently.
On average, women will leave abusers seven times
before leaving for good.
Addressing domestic violence requires a coordinated
and rapid government response.
This includes effective policy, welfare, housing,
health care, law enforcement and nonprofit organisations.
So what do we need to achieve?
Well, we would like the solution to be efficient,
that is, fast and easy.
We'd like it to be scalable, where making the identification
accessible from any device works.
Document storage.
Well, how about we remove the need for original copies
at times of crisis?
And finally, be secure.
Guarantee the safety of customers in preventing information
being accessed and used by perpetrators to stalk,
abuse or find victims and their children.
But also as noted in being efficient.
It needs to be able to be shared securely
with trusted agencies.
DHS is looking for a secure and scalable technological
solution that will enable people experiencing family
and domestic violence to access support quickly
for an innovative digital solution.
This solution may include secure identity verification
and or storage of a person's historical personal documents
such as medical, police or personal action plans.
The solution needs to be able to securely share
this information between trusted government
and non government organisations to enable quick access
to support for people in highly vulnerable circumstances.
Some of the elements of the solution may be a high degree
of information security and complying with relevant
security standards, enabling verification
of a person's identity and or storage of a persons
historical personal documents,
to be able to provide confirmation of document status
in line with DHS policy, as the department's current process
requires that documents are originals,
complete and accurate, by also reducing the time
and complexity of completing a claim and navigating
the service system for customers,
such as different tiers of government and non government
agencies and service providers,
to be available and to be able to work across various
digital channels.
For example, the mobile phone, using a tablet
or personal computer to facilitate access
to relevant information,
to be able to include an audit log function,
not to increase the administrative workload,
considering current platforms used by government
and non government entities to store and share
this kind of information and be scalable across government
and non government organisations and providers,
such as government, medical and police.
Possible solutions.
You could use a distributed ledger technology,
for example, blockchain.
Security, privacy, identity verification, such as
facial recognition, document verification and storage,
such as using the cloud and mobile technology
and accessibility.
We've provided you with a solution to the challenge
in asking you to develop a secure and scalable
technological solution that will enable people experiencing
family and domestic violence to access support quickly.
The next step is to analyse the solution.
So here's some things to think about.
The first solution challenge is efficiency.
Currently, this is a typical high level process
of how an FDV customer would complete a claim.
Remember that the customer is possibly already
highly emotional and scared.
The solution needs to reduce the time and complexity
of completing a claim and navigating the service system
for our customers as well as our staff.
Claim completion needs to be efficient and effective,
but also not increase the administrative workload.
The solution should enable fast and easy access
to identification and personal documents that can be shared
securely with trusted agencies throughout the government
and non government organisations such as links to births,
deaths and marriages, the Department of Home Affairs
or the police.
Think about the different tiers of government
and non government agencies and service providers.
The second solution challenge is scalability.
Consider existing platforms used by government
and trusted non government entities to store
and share this kind of information.
How can we make these connections in tying
into other entities,
be scalable across government and non government
organisations and providers,
such as government, medical and police,
be available and or work across various digital channels,
such as the mobile phone, a tablet, a personal computer,
to facilitate access to relevant information and include
an audit log function.
The third solution challenge is verification and storage.
Here's a scenario.
A family and domestic violence customer will usually
have nothing when they present themselves to the office.
So how do you verify who they are?
What types of storage could've they have used
in storing their official documents?
And how can these be validated in proving that the person
that presents who is they say who they are?
DHS adheres to the Department of Home Affairs
National Identity Proofing Guidelines
when touching on verification.
These guidelines help establish whether a person is
who they say they are.
There are sequential steps in proving a persons identity.
Check that the person has not previously claimed ownership
of the identity.
That is, check the organization's database for identity
records with the same attributes.
Confirm the claimed identity is legitimate.
That is, make sure the identity is that of a real person
through evidence of commencement in identity in Australia
such as a birth certificate, a visa or a passport.
Confirm the operation of the identity
in the community over time.
This will provide additional confidence that an identity
is legitimate and that it is being used in the community
including online, where appropriate.
So make sure their life generally includes finances,
living arrangements, working life or all appears
to support who they say they are.
Confirm the linkage between the identity
and the person claiming the identity.
Doing so provides confidence that the identity,
by comparing a person's face against a photograph,
such as facial recognition,
that there is an increasing range of technologies
that could also provide an alternative,
such a comparison of a biometric captured at enrollment
against a biometric previously captured by
a trusted organisation.
Examples here could be selfies and real time
liveness testing.
And also, confirm the identity is not known
to be used fraudulently.
This provides additional confidence that a fraudulent,
either fictitious or stolen identity, is not being used.
This could be through checks against internal registers
of known fraudulent identities or against dummy records
recorded in the system.
Where possible, this could include checks against
information provided by external sources, such as
law enforcement agencies, births, deaths and marriages,
the Department of Home Affairs and banks and scanning
facilities of credit cards or other identity used cards.
In relation to storage, could this solution be applied
to other customers that don't have access to their
original documents such as natural disaster victims?
The fourth solution challenge is security.
The solution needs to protect the customer as a person,
protect their access and stored information,
track and record if anyone else has accessed
their information, share access violation information
with other trusted stakeholders and ensure the identity
of the person logging into the solution.
Here's some more next steps.
What about expected deliverables at the end
of the proof of concept?
Well, a working prototype of the solution can be trialled
with a small pilot group of customers
and a project plan outlining the resources and costing
and timeframes needed for identified enhancements.
The benefits are empowerment is the most effective approach
to provide necessary services to those affected
by family and domestic violence and requires access
to information and necessary social and economic support
to make informed decisions.
A digital solution will help DHS to assist and empower
customers experiencing family and domestic violence
to make those decisions and access the support
they require to confidently move forward in their lives.
For further information, check out
business.gov.au their website.
Also, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
There's the National Innovation and Science Agenda,
again on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Search for the Trusted Digital Identity Framework
at www.dta.gov.au.
There's National Identity Proofing Guidelines
from the Department of Home Affairs online.
DHS agents and access points available
through www.humanservices.gov.au
and the National Identity Security Strategy
again, the Department of Home Affairs
www.homeaffairs.gov.au.
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