The Cashless Welfare Card, also known as the Indue Card, Healthy Welfare Card or Cashless Debit Card, is an Australian
debit card
A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term '' plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but u ...
, trialled by the
Australian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...
from 2016 onwards, which quarantines income for people on certain income support payments
[Smith, Kristen. The cashless debit card trial: A public health, rights-based approach to better health and social outcomes nline Indigenous Law Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 29, Apr/Jun 2017: 22-27. Availability: . ited 30 Oct 17] 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
Visa most commonly refers to:
*Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company
** Visa Debit card issued by the above company
** Visa Electron, a debit card
** Visa Plus, an interbank network
*Travel visa, a document that allows ...
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
The Centrelink Master Program, or more commonly known as Centrelink, is a Services Australia master program of the Australian Government. It delivers a range of government payments and services for retirees, the unemployed, families, carer ...
to automatically be paid by the card. An earlier income management card, the BasicsCard, was trialled in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. 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.
Review
In 2013,
Andrew Forrest
John Andrew Henry Forrest (born 18 November 1961), nicknamed Twiggy, is an Australian businessman. He is best known as the former CEO (and current non-executive chairman) of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), and has other interests in the mining i ...
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
Alan Tudge (born 24 February 1971) is an Australian politician. He is a member of the Liberal Party and has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2010 federal election. He was a cabinet minister in the Morrison government fr ...
was to work with Forrest on the review, and
Marcia Langton
Marcia Lynne Langton (born 1951) is an Australian academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Regarded as one of Australia's top intellectuals, L ...
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.
]
Inquiry
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
The Minister for Social Services is the Australian federal government minister who oversees Australian Government social services, including mental health, families and children's policy, and support for carers and people with disabilities, and ...
, Dan Tehan
Daniel Thomas Tehan (; born 27 January 1968) is an Australian politician who was the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment in the Morrison Government from 2020 to 2022. He is a member of the Liberal Party and previously served as Minister ...
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
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is the supreme audit institution of Australia, functioning as the national auditor for the Parliament of Australia and Government of Australia. It reports directly to the Australian Parliament via the ...
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.
Trials
The trials began in March 2016. The Greens
Greens may refer to:
*Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc.
Politics Supranational
* Green politics
* Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics
* Global Greens
* Europ ...
senator for Western Australia, Rachel Siewert
Rachel Mary Siewert (born 4 November 1961) is an Australian politician. She was a senator for Western Australia from 2005 to 2021, representing the Australian Greens, and served as the party's co-deputy leader from 2017 to 2018. She previously w ...
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
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Turnbull grad ...
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
Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's regional area has a population of 70,921, and is a major centre of the Wide Bay–Burnett geographical region. The Bun ...
. 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
Centre Alliance, formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist political party in Australia based in the state of South Australia. It currently has one representative in the Parliament, Rebekha Sharkie in the House of Represent ...
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
A drug test is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites. Major applications of dr ...
trial in Mandurah
Mandurah () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 107,641 as of the 2021 Australian census, 2 ...
, Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
, Logan
Logan may refer to:
Places
* Mount Logan (disambiguation)
Australia
* Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly
* Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud
* Logan City, local gover ...
, Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
, and Canterbury-Bankstown
Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs o ...
, New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. 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.
Ceduna, South Australia
When the trial began, Ceduna Ceduna may refer to:
*Ceduna, South Australia, a town and locality
*Ceduna Airport
Ceduna Airport is a public airport in Ceduna, South Australia. The airport, which is owned by the District Council of Ceduna is located adjacent to the Eyre ...
elder Sue Haseldine stated that community consultation had been limited to service providers, rather than including people who would be put on the card. Mimi Smart, a Yalata elder, argued that the consultations had indicated that the CDC would be targeted at "people that hang out in Ceduna drinking and causing trouble".[ The community panels that cardholders can apply to get more of their payments as cash are anonymous. As of February 2018, the trial in Ceduna has been extended for another year.] 75% of people in the Ceduna trial are Indigenous.
Kununurra and Wyndham, Western Australia
Trials in Kununurra and Wyndham began in April 2016. Around 1,200 people are part of the trial in Kununurra and Wyndham. WA Police
The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia, an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the world's largest non-federated area of jurisdiction, with a population ...
have released statistics saying that violence and intimidating behaviour has increased in the area since the card's introduction. Some people have changed their address with Centrelink
The Centrelink Master Program, or more commonly known as Centrelink, is a Services Australia master program of the Australian Government. It delivers a range of government payments and services for retirees, the unemployed, families, carer ...
so that they fall outside the cashless welfare card trial area in an attempt to avoid being placed onto the card. As of February 2018, the trial in the Kimberlies has been extended for another year. 82% of the people in the East Kimberleys trial are Indigenous.
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
The then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that the Goldfields, including Kalgoorlie, would be a trial site for the cashless card in September 2017. This trial site would include 3,800 participants. In a statement to the senate inquiry on the suitability of Kalgoorlie, the government commented on the site's potential to test the card's scalability to wider use within the population. Participants in Kalgoorlie report that they cannot make bank loan repayments as they are not allowed to be paid for using the quarantined money. The trial in Kalgoorlie has been expanded. 48% of the people in the trial in the Goldfields are Indigenous.
Hinkler, Queensland
The Division of Hinkler
The Division of Hinkler is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland.
Geography
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australi ...
has been announced as the next region to roll out the card in 2018, with approximately 6,700 people expected to be placed on the card. This would make it the first urban area
An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
to roll out the card, and the first trial area to not consist of mainly Indigenous people, as 18% of trial participants in Hinkler are Indigenous. The Queensland trial has been passed by the vote of Tim Storer
Timothy Raphael Storer (born 24 October 1969) is a former Australian politician who served as a Senator for South Australia from February 2018 to June 2019. Following the disqualification of Skye Kakoschke-Moore during the parliamentary eligi ...
, who has modified the trial there to ensure that an independent inquiry consults with trial participants.
Northern Territory and Cape York
Following the rape of an Aboriginal toddler in February 2018, it was proposed to trial the cashless welfare card in Tennant Creek with the indigenous community. As part of the 2019-20 Federal Budget, the Government announced a further extension and expansion of the Cashless Welfare Card to 30 June 2021. This includes the transition of approximately 22,500 Income Management participants in the Northern Territory and Cape York to the Cashless Welfare Card from April 2020.
Exiting cashless welfare arrangements
On 5 April 2019, legislation was passed which allowed for an individual who had been placed on the Cashless Welfare Card to apply to exit the trial after 1 July 2019. On 12 August 2019, the assessment criteria were broadened to also consider personal circumstances, in addition to financial management. On 12 September, a
application form
an
information sheet
were made available. In addition to these, it was also stated that an assessment will be undertaken and that there will be a phone interview. It is unclear to date how many people were successfully exited from the trial either before or after the changes introduced on 12 September 2019. There has been mention of "about 700 people have come off the card", but this appears to be "because they found work or they were suspended from welfare payments for breaching the rules", rather than due to exiting the trial. Participants in the trial have waited for a year to find out if their application to withdraw from the CDC trial has been approved. As of June 2020, only a fifth of applications to withdraw from the trial have been approved. A report from the ANAO said that as of February 2022, 591 participants have exited the CDC trial.
Opposition
Those who oppose the card commonly call it the "white card", as it has been imposed by white people, to the point where Indue, the company that administers the card, refuses to give service to people who call it the "white card". A number of groups have expressed their opposition to the Cashless Welfare Card trials, including the St Vincent De Paul Society (Vinnies) and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). The ACOSS has particularly expressed its opposition to the extension of the trials, and has called for the card to be voluntary. There are also numerous grassroots groups which oppose and criticise the Cashless Welfare Card, including (but not limited to
No Cashless Card Australia
an
Say No Seven
as well as at least fourteen related groups representing each of the regions the program is being trialled or being proposed. These online groups collate all the various perceived or actual failings of the Cashless Welfare Card, ranging from the perception of it being a breach of a persons right to financial autonomy, to instances where the CDC has failed at an EFTPOS terminal, yet other cards have worked.
In September 2019 the media reported a 10% reduction in youth unemployment within the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay areas since the Cashless Welfare Card was introduced which is double the national reduction level of 5% but this was shown later to be a Wide Bay regional figure misrepresented in media by LNP federal member Keith Pitt and not specific to Hinkler electorate. It was highlighted by MP Llew O'Brien
Llewellyn Stephen O'Brien (born 26 June 1972) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2016 federal election, representing the Division of Wide Bay. He was deputy speaker of the House from Feb ...
, the representative for the neighbouring Wide Bay electorate that similar reductions in welfare dependency had been recorded in his electorate in the same period, though again, no data has been found to support this statement in the national employment record.
End of the card
Legislation to end the Cashless Debit Card was passed by the House of Representatives, and will be considered by the Senate in September. As many card users linked theirs to "buy now, pay later" services, it may be difficult to transition away from the cards. Cashless Debit Card users in the Northern Territory will be transitioned back onto the BasicsCard, a Howard-era income management scheme.
See also
* Abbott Government
*Closing the Gap
The Closing the Gap framework is an Australian government strategy that aims to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, based on seven targets. From adoption in 2008, after meetings with the Close the Gap social ...
*EFTPOS
Electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS; ) is an electronic payment system involving electronic funds transfers based on the use of payment cards, such as debit or credit cards, at payment terminals located at points of sale. EFTPOS t ...
*Northern Territory National Emergency Response
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response, also known as "The Intervention" or the Northern Territory Intervention, and sometimes the abbreviation "NTER" (for Northern Territory Emergency Response) was a package of measures enforced by ...
* Turnbull Government
*Morrison Government
The Morrison government was the federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party of Australia, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison government commenced on 24 August 2018, when it was sworn ...
References
External links
*
*{{cite web , url=https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015B00134/Explanatory%20Memorandum/Text , website=Federal Register of Legislation
The Office of Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) is an Australian Commonwealth government agency established under the ''Parliamentary Counsel Act 1970'' (Cth) within the Commonwealth Attorney-General's portfolio. OPC drafts all government Bills that ...
, title=Social Security Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015: Explanatory Memorandum
Abbott Government
Turnbull Government
Morrison Government
Welfare reform