From the article:
Using biometrics as well helps cut fraud. A recent tally by the Centre for Global Development (CGD), a think-tank in Washington, found 230 programmes in over 80 countries that verify identities with biometric information, including voter registries and health records. Some are keeping track of the recipients of social spending. Databases that store fingerprints or iris scans will exclude ghost or dead recipients. Checking such data at disbursement means the right person is paid.
Nearly two-fifths of South Africans, for example, are enrolled in the national benefits system, which stores fingerprint and voice records for authentication when cash is disbursed. This year India’s biometric ID register should be complete—holding out the hope that its social schemes could be made less leaky. Alan Gelb and Caroline Decker of CGD estimate that switching to biometrics for a typical cash-transfer scheme that gives a million people $20 a month would pay for itself in a year. After five years the savings would reach $64m.
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