The Education and Social Development ministries have been planning to share information that will help assign ID numbers to at-risk children under five years old, Cabinet papers show.
But the Government insists the numbers will not be used to identify beneficiaries who fail to meet new rules requiring them to enrol their pre-school-aged children.
Most children will be assigned the number when they first enrol in early childhood education. However, some will get it before then because they are regarded as being at risk of not enrolling and need to be tracked.
Cabinet papers from 2012 say to identify those children, the ministries need to share information.
The Government has not admitted to any information sharing agreement, but said on Wednesday that there is nothing that will allow the ID numbers to be used to monitor compliance with the new benefit rules.
