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Cashless Welfare Card
The Cashless Welfare Card, also known as the Indue Card, Healthy Welfare Card or Cashless Debit Card, is an Australian debit card, trialled by the Australian Government from 2016 onwards, which quarantines income for people on certain income support payments to "encourage socially responsible behaviour" by not allowing the owner to purchase alcohol, gamble or withdraw cash. The cards are attached to a separate account managed by Indue into which 80% of the income support payment is paid. In addition, the cashless welfare card only allows users of the card to buy products at approved sellers, that support electronic Mastercard or Visa payments. It cannot stop users from buying restricted goods at shops that sell both restricted and approved goods, such as supermarkets that sell alcohol. Bill payments are set up by Centrelink to automatically be paid by the card. An earlier income management card, the BasicsCard, was trialed in the Northern Territory.
The Labor Party promised to end the Cashless Debit Card and make the Basics Card voluntary if it won the 2022 election. In the lead up to the election, Labor claimed that the Coalition government planned to expand the card's use to aged pensioners. As of June 2022, briefings had begun to wind down the Cashless Welfare Card, although the Albanese government has promised to consult with the trial communities, and CDC users in the Northern Territory will transition onto the BasicsCard income management scheme.
In 2013, Andrew Forrest was chosen by Tony Abbott, to lead a review into Indigenous employment and training programs, which was to report to the Australian government. Alan Tudge was to work with Forrest on the review, and Marcia Langton was also on the review committee. The review was delivered on 1 August 2014, with 27 recommendations. Forrest recommended that the Healthy Welfare Card be mandatory for unemployed people, carers, people with disabilities and single parents. According to Langton, the review recommended that the card only be used in areas where most households were receiving welfare, with the goal of ending intergenerational poverty. The Forrest Review did not review the impact of the BasicsCard or other income management schemes when recommending the Healthy Welfare Card. While Forrest initially envisaged a fully cashless card, Tudge altered it to be mostly cashless. Marcia Langton has since withdrawn her support for the scheme citing it as "brutal" and abuse of the poor.
Senate inquiries were conducted into the card in 2015, 2017, and 2018. two in 2019 and one in 2020.
An independent review of the implementation and performance of the Cashless Welfare Card trial was performed by the Australian National Audit Office which resulted in a number of flaws in the trial being identified, and a series of recommendations made including that a cost-benefit analysis be conducted, and that the Department of Social Service should fully utilise all available data to measure performance, instead of the limited data set used in the evaluation commissioned by the department. It was widely reported that there were fundamental flaws in the Cashless Welfare Card evaluation and justification for continued operation, but the Minister for Social Services, Dan Tehan indicated that the trials would continue, stating that "The cashless debit card is making a real difference in the communities where it operates".
This response is in stark contrast with one of the four community leaders who supported the Cashless Welfare Card being trialled in his area withdrawing support due to feeling "used" to drum up support and the failure to provide adequate support services as was promised. Commentary stating that the Cashless Welfare Card is a success also neglects to mention an actual increase in crime when year to year averages are considered. There is also very little mention of negative outcomes such as an increase in suicides which has been directly linked to the implementation of the Cashless Welfare Card trial, which was raised in the 2017 inquiry. A Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights report from 2017 has found that the CDC negatively impacts rights to social security, privacy, family, equality and non-discrimination, furthermore finding that there has been no compelling rationale for the scale of the CDC.
A 2018 review of the trial programme by the Australian National Audit Office found that the trial results and outcomes were inadequately monitored, and therefore it was difficult to evaluate whether the trial had been successful in reducing social harms and delivering a cheaper welfare quarantining system. Despite this, trials were extended on multiple occasions.
The trials began in March 2016. The Greens senator for Western Australia, Rachel Siewert attempted to halt the trials. The card has faced criticism for targeting Indigenous people, and for its compulsory use by recipients of social security payments, even when they do not engage in behaviours like using illegal drugs. In August 2017, a delegation of community and Indigenous leaders showed Malcolm Turnbull video footage of their town, describing them as "war zones", asking for the card to be implemented in their towns. In December 2017, Labor and the Greens announced that they would not support further trials in the Goldfields or Bundaberg. This was a major shift for Labor, which had supported all previous income management processes. The third trial location had not been decided as of December 2017. The legislation to decide on the third trial site would also make it possible for the government to roll the card out more widely without parliamentary approval. This legislation was not passed through the senate, following opposition by Nick Xenophon Team senators. A drug testing regime for young people receiving Centrelink payments may also use the cashless welfare card as a consequence of testing positive. 5,000 people are expected to be involved in the drug testing trial in Mandurah, Western Australia, Logan, Queensland, and Canterbury-Bankstown, New South Wales. In 2020, a brief pause was put on adding new participants to the Cashless Debit Card due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, a bill was put before the Senate to make the cards permanent. The trial was extended until 2022. As of February 2022, there were 16,685 CDC participants across the five sites of the trial. Eventually, the Senate opposed making the trials permanent.
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Cashless Welfare Card
The Cashless Welfare Card, also known as the Indue Card, Healthy Welfare Card or Cashless Debit Card, is an Australian debit card, trialled by the Australian Government from 2016 onwards, which quarantines income for people on certain income support payments to "encourage socially responsible behaviour" by not allowing the owner to purchase alcohol, gamble or withdraw cash. The cards are attached to a separate account managed by Indue into which 80% of the income support payment is paid. In addition, the cashless welfare card only allows users of the card to buy products at approved sellers, that support electronic Mastercard or Visa payments. It cannot stop users from buying restricted goods at shops that sell both restricted and approved goods, such as supermarkets that sell alcohol. Bill payments are set up by Centrelink to automatically be paid by the card. An earlier income management card, the BasicsCard, was trialed in the Northern Territory.
The Labor Party promised to end the Cashless Debit Card and make the Basics Card voluntary if it won the 2022 election. In the lead up to the election, Labor claimed that the Coalition government planned to expand the card's use to aged pensioners. As of June 2022, briefings had begun to wind down the Cashless Welfare Card, although the Albanese government has promised to consult with the trial communities, and CDC users in the Northern Territory will transition onto the BasicsCard income management scheme.
In 2013, Andrew Forrest was chosen by Tony Abbott, to lead a review into Indigenous employment and training programs, which was to report to the Australian government. Alan Tudge was to work with Forrest on the review, and Marcia Langton was also on the review committee. The review was delivered on 1 August 2014, with 27 recommendations. Forrest recommended that the Healthy Welfare Card be mandatory for unemployed people, carers, people with disabilities and single parents. According to Langton, the review recommended that the card only be used in areas where most households were receiving welfare, with the goal of ending intergenerational poverty. The Forrest Review did not review the impact of the BasicsCard or other income management schemes when recommending the Healthy Welfare Card. While Forrest initially envisaged a fully cashless card, Tudge altered it to be mostly cashless. Marcia Langton has since withdrawn her support for the scheme citing it as "brutal" and abuse of the poor.
Senate inquiries were conducted into the card in 2015, 2017, and 2018. two in 2019 and one in 2020.
An independent review of the implementation and performance of the Cashless Welfare Card trial was performed by the Australian National Audit Office which resulted in a number of flaws in the trial being identified, and a series of recommendations made including that a cost-benefit analysis be conducted, and that the Department of Social Service should fully utilise all available data to measure performance, instead of the limited data set used in the evaluation commissioned by the department. It was widely reported that there were fundamental flaws in the Cashless Welfare Card evaluation and justification for continued operation, but the Minister for Social Services, Dan Tehan indicated that the trials would continue, stating that "The cashless debit card is making a real difference in the communities where it operates".
This response is in stark contrast with one of the four community leaders who supported the Cashless Welfare Card being trialled in his area withdrawing support due to feeling "used" to drum up support and the failure to provide adequate support services as was promised. Commentary stating that the Cashless Welfare Card is a success also neglects to mention an actual increase in crime when year to year averages are considered. There is also very little mention of negative outcomes such as an increase in suicides which has been directly linked to the implementation of the Cashless Welfare Card trial, which was raised in the 2017 inquiry. A Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights report from 2017 has found that the CDC negatively impacts rights to social security, privacy, family, equality and non-discrimination, furthermore finding that there has been no compelling rationale for the scale of the CDC.
A 2018 review of the trial programme by the Australian National Audit Office found that the trial results and outcomes were inadequately monitored, and therefore it was difficult to evaluate whether the trial had been successful in reducing social harms and delivering a cheaper welfare quarantining system. Despite this, trials were extended on multiple occasions.
The trials began in March 2016. The Greens senator for Western Australia, Rachel Siewert attempted to halt the trials. The card has faced criticism for targeting Indigenous people, and for its compulsory use by recipients of social security payments, even when they do not engage in behaviours like using illegal drugs. In August 2017, a delegation of community and Indigenous leaders showed Malcolm Turnbull video footage of their town, describing them as "war zones", asking for the card to be implemented in their towns. In December 2017, Labor and the Greens announced that they would not support further trials in the Goldfields or Bundaberg. This was a major shift for Labor, which had supported all previous income management processes. The third trial location had not been decided as of December 2017. The legislation to decide on the third trial site would also make it possible for the government to roll the card out more widely without parliamentary approval. This legislation was not passed through the senate, following opposition by Nick Xenophon Team senators. A drug testing regime for young people receiving Centrelink payments may also use the cashless welfare card as a consequence of testing positive. 5,000 people are expected to be involved in the drug testing trial in Mandurah, Western Australia, Logan, Queensland, and Canterbury-Bankstown, New South Wales. In 2020, a brief pause was put on adding new participants to the Cashless Debit Card due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, a bill was put before the Senate to make the cards permanent. The trial was extended until 2022. As of February 2022, there were 16,685 CDC participants across the five sites of the trial. Eventually, the Senate opposed making the trials permanent.