Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 271 - Crimes Against Public Policy
Section 43 - Solicitation, Disclosure, Receipt or Use of Information Concerning Public Assistance

Section 43. Any person who, except for purposes directly connected with the administration of general public assistance, old age assistance, aid to the blind, or aid to families with dependent children, and in accordance with the rules and regulations of the department of transitional assistance made under authority of section ten of chapter eighteen, or of the commission for the blind made under authority of section one hundred and forty-nine of chapter six, as the case may be, shall solicit, disclose, receive, make use of, or authorize, knowingly permit, participate in, or acquiesce in the use of, any list of, or names of, or any information concerning, persons applying for or receiving general public assistance, old age assistance, aid to families with dependent children or aid to the blind, directly or indirectly derived from the records, papers, files or communications of the department of transitional assistance, any city or town welfare department or bureau of old age assistance, or the commission for the blind, as the case may be, or acquired in the course of the performance of official duties, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars. Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the disclosure by the commissioner of revenue to the commissioner of transitional assistance or to the IV–D agency as set forth in chapter one hundred and nineteen A, in concert with a wage reporting system, of such information as may be necessary to ascertain or confirm the existence of fraud, abuse or improper payments to an applicant, for or recipient of, public assistance; and nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the disclosure to said IV–D agency of information necessary for setoff debt collection pursuant to chapter sixty-two D or any other child support enforcement purpose.

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