At the start of the beneficiary administration process for primary transfers, it is useful to access other data that can help determine the status and / or whereabouts of beneficiaries.

This provides advance warning of the likely challenges that will emerge during the process, and can be useful for resource planning and contracting with conveyancers and other third parties.

It is also critical to validate data obtained from respondents interviewed during occupancy surveys.

There are two key data sources:

1. Home affairs data

2. Deeds registry data

A key data source is population register data from Home Affairs which includes data on the status of beneficiaries.

HSS beneficiary data can be cross referenced against Home Affairs data to determine whether beneficiaries are alive, what their current marital status is and in some cases, access data on children.

At present housing authorities do not have access to Home Affairs data and must purchase this data from credit bureaus or other third parties.

At the start of the beneficiary administration process for primary transfers, existing data on beneficiaries must be extracted from various databases and collated. The key steps associated with this process include:

1. Step 1: Extract data on project beneficiaries from the HSS

2. Step 2: Identify Additional Project Records

3. Step 3: Enrich Data

   • Home Affairs Data

   • Deed Registry Data

4. Step 4: Secure Data in Database

Another key data set is deeds data which will allow officials to identify beneficiaries who own or have owned properties, the location of the property, the seller of the property and the date of transfer

This data is useful as a cross check in case beneficiaries were allocated a property in another project

Beneficiaries may have come to own property after receiving a subsidy. In this case, that they own a property should not disqualify them from transfer.

Identify other internal records

In some cases, project managers may have spreadsheets containing data on individuals allocated to a site once the development is underway or complete.

These additional sources of data can be useful where occupants are not beneficiaries (as when non-qualifiers were allocated to subsidy units in the case of informal settlement upgrading projects) or where HSS records are not accurate (for instance, HSS data may not have been updated when beneficiaries were removed from the project).

Before using this data, the housing authority should establish how it was collected, how well it was maintained and how accurate it is.

Get project beneficiaries from HSS

Extract data from the HSS in CSV format. Only demographic data should be exported from the system. Follow the steps below to gather the requisite information.

1. Visit the

2. Access the project list page

3. Locate specific project list

4. Export the project beneficiaries ID number list for that project

As more information is gathered it is critical that the data is curated properly. There are currently no systems for storing data and the data is typically saved on various spreadsheets maintained by various users who save and edit the data without adhering to any protocols. This makes it very difficult to link beneficiaries to properties or occupants to beneficiaries and to determine the pathway to transfer and next steps.

Nevertheless, even in the absence of a system to store and analyse data, the housing authority must ensure that the data is secured and accessible to authorised project team members only.