Deleting or undeleting a Centrelink Customer Reference Number (CRN) 102-13030030

A Centrelink record is deleted if it meets certain business rules. This is normally:

• a period of inactivity
• no active links to other records, or
• information that is out of date

Deleted records are only found if the exact CRN is entered into the database. It allows Service Officers to view the customer’s information and simultaneously protects the record from any updates.

Deleted records will display ‘M9851 Deleted record - screen fields protected’ message.

Note: these record types are not classified as multiple CRNs and should not be referred to the Data Quality Unit (DQU).

In some circumstances, the system has enabled online claims to be submitted onto deleted CRNs, which then generates a work item.

Service Officers must:

• Complete a thorough search to locate an existing customer record
• Ensure the correct record has been found for the customer
• Cancel the new claim (NCL) activity on the deleted CRN and re-index on the primary customer record. See Indexing, re-indexing and cancelling claim activities

If an exhaustive search has not identified an existing customer record, contact the Data Quality Unit (DQU) to undelete the record.

The manual deletion function is restricted to staff within the Data Quality Unit (DQU) and controlled by Resource Assignment.

Only person (PER) and unauthenticated online entity (UOE) records can be manually deleted once specific business rules are met.

When DQU deletes a customer’s multiple record a Display on Access (DOA) DOC containing the deleted CRN will be added to the customer’s primary record.

Automatic deletion occurs on inactive records by a periodic 'shell clean-up' of the database. In this process ‘shell’ records that meet specific business rules are deleted.

Only records that meet a critical business need will be undeleted. If a deleted record does not meet the criteria to be undeleted, staff will need to complete a thorough search for any other active records. If an active record is not located after conducting a thorough search, staff will need to create a new record for the customer.

A CRN that has been deleted either manually or automatically can be undeleted, this function is restricted to staff within the Data Quality Unit (DQU).

DQU will only undelete a customer record if there is a critical business need.

Scenarios that do qualify as critical business needs:

• A claim is accidentally started, submitted or finalised on a deleted CRN
• Data, where a ripple needs to occur for correct payments and raising debts

Scenarios that are not critical business needs:

• A customer wants to claim a new payment such as the COVID-19 Disaster Payment
• A customer wants to register for Centrelink online services through myGov

If there is a critical business need to undelete the customer record, contact the DQU to undelete the record.

If there is no critical business need to undelete the customer record, commence a thorough search for an existing CRN. If an active record is not located after conducting a thorough search, staff will need to create a new record for the customer.

If the record has migrated to Environment Y, see information under the Environment Y heading.

Environment Y stores deleted and deceased records where there is no ongoing business requirement. A record can only be retrieved or undeleted if there is a critical business need. See Centrelink Environment Y for deleted and inactive deceased customer records.

Access to move CRNs with the status of deceased from Environment Y is restricted to Data Quality Unit (DQU) staff.