tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/welfare-card-17026/articlesWelfare card – The Conversation2020-11-12T00:11:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1494442020-11-12T00:11:23Z2020-11-12T00:11:23ZWhy is the government trying to make the cashless debit card permanent? Research shows it does not work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367596/original/file-20201104-23-1nmurn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dystopic policy in Australia is often hidden in plain sight. </p>
<p>As Curtin University Professor Suvendrini Perera <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-slow-violence-of-letting-children-die-in-wa-s-kimberley-20190306-p5129u.html">has written</a>, systematic failures are not necessarily “spectacular acts” but the “decisions and indecisions of bureaucratic oversights and misplaced assumptions”. And these amount to a “slow violence” over time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-been-stigmatising-unemployed-people-for-almost-100-years-covid-19-is-our-big-chance-to-change-this-143349">Australia has been stigmatising unemployed people for almost 100 years. COVID-19 is our big chance to change this</a>
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<p>One such failure is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/06/cashless-welfare-card-how-does-it-work-and-what-changes-is-the-government-proposing">Cashless Debit Card</a>, which has been trialled in Australia since 2016. </p>
<p>Yet, among all the measures in last month’s budget was the news the Morrison government will make the trial scheme “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-11/centrelink-cashless-welfare-card-how-to-christmas-shopping/12751038">ongoing</a>”. </p>
<h2>What is the Cashless Debit Card?</h2>
<p>The Cashless Debit Card scheme quarantines 80% of social security payments to a cashless card, which prevents spending on alcohol, illegal drugs and gambling products. </p>
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<img alt="Empty shopping trolley in supermarket aisle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367597/original/file-20201104-13-2b821n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367597/original/file-20201104-13-2b821n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367597/original/file-20201104-13-2b821n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367597/original/file-20201104-13-2b821n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367597/original/file-20201104-13-2b821n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367597/original/file-20201104-13-2b821n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367597/original/file-20201104-13-2b821n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The card is supposed to quarantine welfare payment for essentials such as food and groceries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>It is currently being trialled in Ceduna in South Australia, the East Kimberley in Western Australia, the Goldfields in WA and Hervey Bay region in Queensland, with about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/03/cashless-welfare-card-fewer-than-10-of-senate-inquiry-submissions-back-bill">12,000 people</a> involved.</p>
<p>The card compulsorily includes a <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children/programmes-services/welfare-conditionality/cashless-debit-card-overview">broad range of people</a> receiving support for many reasons, including payments for disability, parenting, caring, unemployment and youth allowance. The <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/commission-submission-cashless-debit-card-bill">Australian Human Rights Commission</a> is among those who have pointed out the the card disproportionately impacts First Nations people.</p>
<h2>Research shows it does not work</h2>
<p>Peer-reviewed research has consistently shown the card, and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1839-4655.2016.tb01243.x">income management</a> more broadly, do not meet policy objectives. A 2020 <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-dont-want-anybody-to-see-me-using-it-cashless-welfare-cards-do-more-harm-than-good-132341">academic study</a> of multiple locations found compulsory income management “can do as much harm as good”. </p>
<p>Survey respondents reported not having enough cash for essential items, while the research found the card “can also stigmatise and infantilise users”.</p>
<p>My research examining the card in the East Kimberley shows it makes <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/147866">life more difficult</a> for people subjected to it, including making it harder to manage money. People also reported the card made it more difficult to <a href="https://128f2a8c-7e2b-db29-c5ed-c863dde6f97c.filesusr.com/ugd/b629ee_01e1002bbfc748459d2a323d278d9300.pdf">buy basic goods</a> such as medicine and groceries. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-dont-want-anybody-to-see-me-using-it-cashless-welfare-cards-do-more-harm-than-good-132341">'I don't want anybody to see me using it': cashless welfare cards do more harm than good</a>
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<p>Other research from the Life Course Centre suggests compulsory income management has been linked to a reduction of <a href="https://www.lifecoursecentre.org.au/research/journal-articles/working-paper-series/do-welfare-restrictions-improve-child-health-estimating-the-causal-impact-of-income-management-in-the-northern-territory/">birth weight</a> and <a href="https://www.lifecoursecentre.org.au/research/journal-articles/working-paper-series/the-effect-of-quarantining-welfare-on-school-attendance-in-indigenous-communities/">school attendance</a>. The majority of these children are First Nations kids.</p>
<h2>Bill before parliament</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6608">bill</a> to make the card permanent was introduced to parliament just a day after the budget was handed down. </p>
<p>If passed, it will also transfer about 25,000 people in the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/03_2020/im-cdc-nt-fact-sheet.pdf">Northern Territory and Cape York</a> who are on the Basics Card (an earlier version of income management) onto the Cashless Debit Card.</p>
<p>Introducing the bill to the House, Morrison government minister <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2Fa28c39ce-4e49-4b78-914d-ccca686a471e%2F0018%22">Trevor Evans said</a> the card was delivering “significant benefits” in the trial communities. </p>
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<p>The program has the objective of reducing immediate hardship and deprivation, helping welfare recipients with their budgeting strategies and reducing the likelihood that they will remain on welfare and out of the workforce for extended periods.</p>
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<p>The government <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2Fa28c39ce-4e49-4b78-914d-ccca686a471e%2F0018%22">also says</a> the card is used “just like an everyday bank card” and is seeing a reduction in drug and alcohol use and gambling. </p>
<h2>Senate inquiry</h2>
<p>But as highlighted above, the value of the scheme is heavily disputed by policy experts. People put on the card, community groups, lawyers and doctors <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/CashlessWelfareContinua/Submissions">also oppose</a> any expansion of the card. </p>
<p>The card’s expansion has been the subject of a brief <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/CashlessWelfareContinua">Senate inquiry</a>, which is due to report on November 17. </p>
<p>This is the sixth Senate inquiry into the Cashless Debit Card. Each one has seen submissions from across the community which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/03/cashless-welfare-card-fewer-than-10-of-senate-inquiry-submissions-back-bill">overwhelmingly reject the card</a>. </p>
<p>First Nations groups have <a href="http://www.amsant.org.au/apont/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/20201008-Why-we-oppose-the-Cashless-Debit-Card-Expansion-Bill.pdf">led the charge</a>, stating income management is not in the spirit of self-determination and the current bill would “directly contradict the recent National Agreement on Closing the Gap”. </p>
<h2>Smoke and mirrors</h2>
<p>Trials of public policy programs require, by definition, research to examine their performance and to justify any continuation. Yet, the government continues to rely on <a href="https://www.anneruston.com.au/joint_media_release_expanding_the_cashless_welfare_in_hervey_bay_and_bundaberg">anecdotes</a> and the widely criticised 2017 <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children-programs-services-welfare-reform-cashless-debit-card/cashless-debit-card-evaluation">evaluation by ORIMA Research</a> as “proof” for the roll out of the Cashless Debit Card. </p>
<p>In 2018, the <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/implementation-and-performance-cashless-debit-card-trial">Australian National Audit Office</a> found the ORIMA evaluation was methodologically flawed and unable to provide any credible conclusions regarding the real impact of the trial. </p>
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<img alt="Aerial view of Hervey Bay, Queensland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367601/original/file-20201104-23-hldfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367601/original/file-20201104-23-hldfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367601/original/file-20201104-23-hldfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367601/original/file-20201104-23-hldfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367601/original/file-20201104-23-hldfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367601/original/file-20201104-23-hldfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367601/original/file-20201104-23-hldfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The card has been trialled in the Hervey Bay and Bundaberg region since 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>In the latest bill, the government also misrepresents the findings from a 2014 evaluation of compulsory income management into the Northern Territory, claiming the findings <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/ems/r6608_ems_291e3448-b2fb-4116-b3df-d5759b59cb05/upload_pdf/JC000186.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">were supportive of income management</a>. Yet <a href="https://caepr.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/Evaluation_of_New_Income_Management_in_the_Northern_Territory_full_report_0.pdf">this evaluation</a>, </p>
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<p>[did] not find any consistent evidence of income management having a significant systematic positive impact. </p>
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<p>Compelled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/11/cashless-welfare-card-to-be-introduced-in-parts-of-queensland-after-coalitions-senate-win">by the Senate</a>, the government has since commissioned the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-11/centrelink-cashless-welfare-card-how-to-christmas-shopping/12751038">University of Adelaide</a> to evaluate the scheme. This research was due to be released by the end of 2019 but is yet to be made public.</p>
<p>When asked about the report in <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/estimate/cea95c13-3990-4065-81af-9d5dfcdedeb5/toc_pdf/Community%20Affairs%20Legislation%20Committee_2020_10_28_8259.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22committees/estimate/cea95c13-3990-4065-81af-9d5dfcdedeb5/0000%22">Senate estimates last month</a>, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said it was not about deciding whether the card would continue, but to give advice on “what what was working particularly well”.</p>
<p>Perversely, the current bill also removes any need to further evaluate the Cashless Debit Card, instead opting to rely on the department to undertake its own <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/ems/r6608_ems_291e3448-b2fb-4116-b3df-d5759b59cb05/upload_pdf/JC000186.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">desk-based research</a>. </p>
<h2>Why is evidence being ignored?</h2>
<p>The protracted life of the Cashless Debit Card in Australian public policy shows the ongoing disregard for evidence-based policy making. </p>
<p>It also shows the continued slow violence against thousands of Australians who deserve much better from elected officials and the structures set up to support them. </p>
<p>Whilst it is easy not to pay attention to the mundane details of policy, the Cashless Debit Card shows we must.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-insult-politicians-sing-the-praises-of-the-cashless-welfare-card-but-those-forced-to-use-it-disagree-123352">'An insult' – politicians sing the praises of the cashless welfare card, but those forced to use it disagree</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elise Klein receives funding from the British Academy, is a board member of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies and a member of the BIEN. </span></em></p>The Morrison government has introduced a bill to parliament to make the cashless debit card trial ‘ongoing’.Elise Klein, Senior Lecturer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1323412020-02-25T19:02:28Z2020-02-25T19:02:28Z‘I don’t want anybody to see me using it’: cashless welfare cards do more harm than good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317003/original/file-20200225-24651-zgy5z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4808%2C2927&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Australian government touts compulsory income management as a way to stop welfare payments being spent on alcohol, drugs or gambling. </p>
<p>The Howard government introduced the <a href="https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/basicscard">BasicsCard</a> more than a decade ago. About 22,500 welfare recipients now use it, mostly in the Northern Territory. Now the Coalition government has big plans for a more versatile <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children/programmes-services/welfare-conditionality/cashless-debit-card-overview">Cashless Debit Card</a>, trialled on about 12,700 people in four regional communities in Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland.</p>
<p>These trials aren’t complete, nor the findings compiled, but a string of senior ministers, including <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scott-morrison-eyes-long-term-cashless-debit-card-roll-out-20190907-p52oxb.html">Prime Minister Scott Morrison</a>, have indicated they are already sold on expanding the program.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-insult-politicians-sing-the-praises-of-the-cashless-welfare-card-but-those-forced-to-use-it-disagree-123352">'An insult' – politicians sing the praises of the cashless welfare card, but those forced to use it disagree</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.incomemanagementstudy.com/blog/hiddencosts">Our research</a>, however, <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-mounting-evidence-against-cashless-debit-cards-but-the-government-is-ploughing-on-regardless-123763">adds to the evidence</a> that compulsory income-management policies do as much harm as good.</p>
<h2>Financial (in)stability</h2>
<p>Over the past year we have conducted the first <a href="https://www.incomemanagementstudy.com/">independent, multisite study</a> of compulsory income management in Australia. It has involved 114 in-depth interviews at four sites: Playford (BasicsCard) and Ceduna (Cashless Debit Card) in South Australia; Shepparton (BasicsCard) in Victoria; and the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region (Cashless Debit Card) in Queensland. We also collected 199 survey responses from around Australia. </p>
<p>Proponents of compulsory income management champion its potential to “provide a stabilising factor in the lives of families with regard to financial management and to encourage safe and healthy expenditure of welfare dollars”, as the then social services minister, Paul Fletcher, <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/portfolio-speeches/speech-to-sydney-institute-welfare-personal-responsibility-and-the-cashless">said in March</a> last year. </p>
<p>Our study found some individuals experience these benefits. But most face extra financial challenges. These include not having enough cash for essential items, being unable to shop at preferred outlets, being unable to buy second-hand goods, and cards being declined even when they are supposed to work. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=264&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=264&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=264&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316964/original/file-20200224-24690-153xr6u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Survey respondents reported a range of challenges related to compulsory income management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hidden Costs: An Independent Study into Income Management in Australia</span></span>
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<p>In Playford, Jacob* told us about being on the BasicsCard, which can only be used with merchants that have agreed to not allow cardholders to buy excluded goods. </p>
<p>The limits on where he could shop made it harder for him to manage his finances. </p>
<p>“I couldn’t make decisions about saving money,” he told us. He and his wife used to catch the train to shop at the Adelaide markets, for example, but vendors there couldn’t take the BasicsCard.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167621/original/file-20170503-4096-12pb3xf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167621/original/file-20170503-4096-12pb3xf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167621/original/file-20170503-4096-12pb3xf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167621/original/file-20170503-4096-12pb3xf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167621/original/file-20170503-4096-12pb3xf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167621/original/file-20170503-4096-12pb3xf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167621/original/file-20170503-4096-12pb3xf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The 2016 Indue Cashless Debit Card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">indue.com.au</span></span>
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<p>The Cashless Debit Card is intended to overcome the limitations of the BasicsCard. It’s like a debit card except it can’t be used to withdraw cash or at businesses that sell prohibited items.</p>
<p>But Emma*, a single mother in the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay area, told of her struggles to make basic purchases using the card. It often failed – even at businesses that purportedly accepted it – and her family went without. She also felt excluded from the markets and second-hand retailers where she used to shop. </p>
<p>Her greatest stress, however, was rent. Emma* said she had always been on time with rental payments until the Cashless Debit Card. She described one occasion when, two days after paying the rent, the money “bounced back” into her account. When she rang the card’s administrator (card payment company <a href="https://www2.indue.com.au/">Indue</a>), she was told: “It’s just a minor teething issue, just keep trying.” </p>
<p>The extra stress from “worrying about which payments were going to get paid” was considerable. Others shared similar experiences.</p>
<h2>Social (dis)integration</h2>
<p>Supporters of compulsory income management claim it brings people back into the community by combating addiction and encouraging pro-social behaviour and economic contribution. As federal Attorney-General <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2F5d1aabc6-2984-42d1-bf5e-3f493db56d60%2F0048;orderBy=customrank;page=0;query=Cashless%20debit%20card%20SearchCategory_Phrase%3A%22house%20of%20representatives%22%20Dataset_Phrase%3A%22hansardr%22%20Speaker_Phrase%3A%22pitt,%20keith,%20mp%22;rec=1;resCount=Default">Christian Porter said in 2018</a>: “The cashless debit card can help to stabilise the lives of young people in the new trial locations by limiting spending on alcohol, drugs and gambling and thus improving the chances of young Australians finding employment or successfully completing education or training.”</p>
<p>However, our study found the card can also stigmatise and infantilise users – pushing people without these problems further to the margins. </p>
<p>One of the problems is that compulsory income management is routinely applied based on where a person lives and their payment type, and not on any history of problem behaviour. The large majority of our respondents indicated they did not have alcohol, drug or gambling issues. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316963/original/file-20200224-24676-1jamv1d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The majority of survey respondents had been managing finances well before compulsory income management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hidden Costs: An Independent Study into Income Management in Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>But as Ray* in Ceduna explained, having the card meant others viewed him as a problem citizen.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m embarrassed every time I have to use it at the supermarket, which is about the only place I do use it. I sort of look around and see who’s behind me in the queue. I don’t want anybody to see me using it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This was a common experience across the interview sites. </p>
<p>Maryanne* in Shepparton told about being judged for shopping for groceries with her BasicsCard. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I got called a junkie and I said: ‘I’m not a junkie, do you see any marks or anything?’ They were like: ‘No, but you have a BasicsCard.’ I said: ‘What’s that got to do with it? Centrelink gave it to me. I can’t do nothing.’</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316965/original/file-20200224-24664-asok53.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316965/original/file-20200224-24664-asok53.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=208&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316965/original/file-20200224-24664-asok53.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=208&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316965/original/file-20200224-24664-asok53.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=208&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316965/original/file-20200224-24664-asok53.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316965/original/file-20200224-24664-asok53.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316965/original/file-20200224-24664-asok53.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stigma was a common concern among survey participants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hidden Costs: An Independent Study into Income Management in Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<h2>A path forward</h2>
<p>The overwhelming finding from our study is that compulsory income management is having a disabling, not an enabling, impact on many users’ lives. As the policy has been extended, more and more Australians <a href="https://www.vinnies.org.au/page/Publications/National/Factsheets_and_policy_briefings/The_Cashless_Debit_Card/">with no pre-existing problems</a> have been caught up in its path. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-mounting-evidence-against-cashless-debit-cards-but-the-government-is-ploughing-on-regardless-123763">There's mounting evidence against cashless debit cards, but the government is ploughing on regardless</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This does not mean a genuine voluntary scheme could not be maintained, but it would need to sit alongside evidence-based measures to tackle poverty. </p>
<p>Addressing the <a href="https://raisetherate.org.au/">inadequacy of income support payments</a>, ensuring <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-job-snob-claims-dont-match-the-evidence-121429">decent employment and training opportunities</a>, and providing accessible social services and secure and affordable <a href="https://theconversation.com/supportive-housing-is-cheaper-than-chronic-homelessness-67539">housing</a> would be a better starting point for creating healthy lives and flourishing communities.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Names have been changed to protect individuals’ privacy.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Marston receives funding from The Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Peterie receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Mendes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoe Staines receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The first independent, multisite study of compulsory income management in Australia suggest little evidence to support political enthusiasm to extend the policy.Greg Marston, Head of School, School of Social Science, The University of QueenslandMichelle Peterie, Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandPhillip Mendes, Associate Professor, Director Social Inclusion and Social Policy Research Unit, Monash UniversityZoe Staines, Research fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230962019-09-09T04:56:55Z2019-09-09T04:56:55ZDrugs don’t affect job seeking, so let’s offer users help rather than take away their payments<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291422/original/file-20190909-175663-1kss60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C136%2C5064%2C3482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Drug testing risks further marginalising welfare recipients. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-confused-man-looking-laptop-sitting-180999986?src=LPOLOKvY9T2BDQE8aqVbJA-2-57">Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Morrison government is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/the-recycled-drug-testing-plan-is-just-one-more-cruel-and-pointless-diversion">having another shot</a> at getting its proposal to drug test people on welfare through the Senate.</p>
<p>Welfare, health and drug treatment experts have consistently opposed the proposal since it was first introduced three years ago. They say these measures will only serve to <a href="https://ama.com.au/media/dr-chris-moy-doorstop-drug-testing-welfare-recipients">further marginalise people on welfare</a> and people who use drugs, and may have a range of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/14/drug-testing-welfare-recipients-an-absolute-disgrace-australian-of-the-year-says">unintended consequences</a> such as homelessness.</p>
<p>If the government really wanted to assist people who have drug problems to return to work, it would increase funding for drug treatment.</p>
<h2>What’s being proposed?</h2>
<p>The new proposal appears very similar to those the Senate <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/ems/r6065_ems_5df415e5-bf55-4745-8db8-6d653265a900/upload_pdf/665144.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22legislation/ems/r6065_ems_5df415e5-bf55-4745-8db8-6d653265a900%22">previously rejected</a> in 2017 and 2018.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.anneruston.com.au/media_release_drug_testing_trials_to_help_welfare_recipients_become_job_ready">two year trial</a> would test around 5,000 new recipients of Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance for a range of illegal drugs in three locations in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/drug-testing-welfare-recipients-raises-questions-about-data-profiling-and-discrimination-77471">Drug testing welfare recipients raises questions about data profiling and discrimination</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Cocaine has been added to the list of drugs to be tested for. The list already included methamphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy), opioids (such as heroin) and cannabis in <a href="https://ajp.com.au/news/drug-testing-welfare-recipients-really-mean/">earlier versions</a>.</p>
<p>Welfare recipients who test positive will be placed on income management, with 80% of their income quarantined. </p>
<p>They will undertake a second test within a month. Two positive tests will result in a referral to a medical professional for treatment. Ongoing treatment may be a requirement of their job plan. </p>
<p>If they return two positive tests, or they dispute a test and ask for another test, they will be required to <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/ems/r6065_ems_5df415e5-bf55-4745-8db8-6d653265a900/upload_pdf/665144.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22legislation/ems/r6065_ems_5df415e5-bf55-4745-8db8-6d653265a900%22">repay the cost of the tests</a>.</p>
<h2>What is the rationale?</h2>
<p>The government is attempting to frame the measure as a helping hand for people who have problems with drugs. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/morrison-backs-drug-testing-politicians-as-well-as-welfare-recipients">Social services minister</a> Anne Ruston said the measure was not to punish people on welfare but to identify those who needed help. </p>
<p>During previous attempts to get this legislation through the Senate, former prime minister <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/drug-test-trial-for-welfare-recipients-all-about-love-says-turnbull">Malcolm Turnbull</a> described it as a measure of “love”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291424/original/file-20190909-175673-10synt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291424/original/file-20190909-175673-10synt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291424/original/file-20190909-175673-10synt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291424/original/file-20190909-175673-10synt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291424/original/file-20190909-175673-10synt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291424/original/file-20190909-175673-10synt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291424/original/file-20190909-175673-10synt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the plan goes ahead, most people detected for drug taking won’t have problems with substance abuse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/468262262?src=TC07ZbO2VeGASJShfquTbg-1-3&size=huge_jpg">TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But a positive drug test is not an indicator of problems. It cannot distinguish between one-off, irregular or regular use. It cannot indicate how much of a drug has been used. So it will not be able to fulfil the government’s wish to identify those who need help.</p>
<p>Most people who use drugs do not have problems with them. Only 20% of people who use methamphetamine, for example, <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/ndshs-2016-detailed/contents/table-of-contents">use it more than once a week</a>. Using more often than weekly is a marker for dependence. </p>
<p>So the majority of people who test positive will probably not have a problem, and will be inadvertently and unnecessarily caught up in the treatment system.</p>
<p>Alcohol and tobacco are the drugs that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269881119841569">cause the most harm</a>, including dependence and longer-term health problems. They are also the biggest financial burden on the community. Neither is addressed under this measure, so it will not assist the majority of people who need help.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/history-not-harm-dictates-why-some-drugs-are-legal-and-others-arent-110564">History, not harm, dictates why some drugs are legal and others aren't</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If the aim was to help people address ongoing drug problems, MDMA would not be on the list of drugs to be tested. There are <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-mdma-kill-109506">very few long-term problems</a> with MDMA. It rarely requires treatment, despite it being the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/ndshs-2016-detailed/contents/table-of-contents">in the top three most commonly used illicit drugs</a> in Australia.</p>
<h2>Why it’s unlikely to be effective</h2>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/morrison-backs-drug-testing-politicians-as-well-as-welfare-recipients">has said</a> the plan is “about helping people get off welfare, off the dole and into work”.</p>
<p>But there is no evidence drug use is a barrier to job seeking. In fact, most people who use drugs are <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-who-uses-illicit-drugs-in-australia-110169">employed</a>.</p>
<p>A 2001 <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247245354_Drug_testing_and_mandatory_treatment_for_welfare_recipients">Canadian study</a> concluded drug testing welfare recipients was an expensive process that would result in a very marginal increase in employment.</p>
<p>A 2013 position paper from the <a href="https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/20368/1/ANCD_paper_DrugTesting.pdf">Australian National Council on Drugs</a>, the Australian government’s previous drug advisory body, similarly concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no evidence that drug testing welfare beneficiaries will have any positive effects for those individuals or for society, and some evidence indicating such a practice would have high social and economic costs. In addition, there would be serious ethical and legal problems in implementing such a program in Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There’s also <a href="https://public-health.uq.edu.au/article/2017/09/evidence-or-against-drug-testing-welfare-recipients">little evidence such a measure would save money</a> by kicking people off welfare, given the costs of running such programs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-evidence-for-or-against-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-it-depends-on-the-result-were-after-83641">Is evidence for or against drug-testing welfare recipients? It depends on the result we're after</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>New Zealand originally looked at a scheme similar to the Australian proposal, but subsequently modified it to subsidise existing pre-employment testing. It tested more than 8,000 people on welfare and returned only <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11184479">22 positive results</a>.</p>
<p>Trials in the US found <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/us/florida-law-on-drug-testing-for-welfare-is-struck-down.html?_r=0">relatively few people</a> who received government benefits tested positive to illicit drugs. Among seven states that trailed a similar measure in the US, nearly all of them had <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/26/3624447/tanf-drug-testing-states/">detection rates</a> of less than 1%. </p>
<p>The trials showed <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J045v17n01_03">little net benefit</a>, also making it an expensive exercise.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395915003588">The evidence</a> in favour of forcing people into treatment is limited. It is <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/involuntary-treatment-sud-misguided-response-2018012413180">less effective</a> than voluntary treatment for long-term outcomes, and increases overdose risk. </p>
<p>Financial sanctions can lead to <a href="https://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/assets/uploads/2011-uploads/Policy-Briefing-Welfare-Reform-and-Substance-Use-July-2011-0.pdf">poorer outcomes</a> in people with alcohol or other drug problems.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forcing-ice-users-into-rehab-wont-solve-the-problem-heres-what-we-need-instead-45946">Forcing ice users into rehab won't solve the problem – here's what we need instead</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Instead, increase funding for drug treatment</h2>
<p>Every $1 spent on <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16430607">drug treatment saves</a> about $7 in health, welfare and other costs to the community.</p>
<p><a href="https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/resource/new-horizons-review-alcohol-and-other-drug-treatment-services-australia">Drug treatment</a> reduces drug use and harms, which has knock-on effects of improving participation in the community (including employment and <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d6e5/e2aa51b17b1863d07c823a19a531e7f54788.pdf">training</a>), improving health and well-being, and reducing criminal behaviour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291425/original/file-20190909-175673-1lw0sqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291425/original/file-20190909-175673-1lw0sqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291425/original/file-20190909-175673-1lw0sqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291425/original/file-20190909-175673-1lw0sqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291425/original/file-20190909-175673-1lw0sqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291425/original/file-20190909-175673-1lw0sqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291425/original/file-20190909-175673-1lw0sqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Every dollar spent on drug treatment saves $7.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/343847333?src=LwGO8_sqWKmBO8aKvhrfpg-1-54&size=huge_jpg">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet there are too few drug treatment places for people who want it, let alone forcing people who don’t want or need it into treatment.</p>
<p>Along with drug testing welfare recipients, the government has announced a <a href="https://www.anneruston.com.au/media_release_drug_testing_trials_to_help_welfare_recipients_become_job_ready">A$10 million treatment fund</a>. But we need at least double the <a href="https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/ndarc/resources/New%20Horizons%20Final%20Report%20July%202014.pdf">A$1.2 billion</a> currently spent to just meet the existing demand for voluntary treatment. </p>
<p>The proposed measure is a blunt response to a nuanced problem. There are much more effective, and cost effective, ways to address both alcohol and other drug problems and unemployment than drug testing welfare recipients.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/helping-drug-users-get-back-to-work-not-random-drug-testing-should-be-our-priority-77468">Helping drug users get back to work, not random drug testing, should be our priority</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Lee works as a paid consultant in the alcohol and other drug sector. She has previously been awarded grants by state and federal governments, NHMRC and other public funding bodies for alcohol and other drug research. </span></em></p>There’s no evidence drug use is a barrier to job seeking. And testing can’t distinguish between one off, irregular or regular use.Nicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/507562015-11-19T02:57:39Z2015-11-19T02:57:39ZHealthy Welfare Card begins here … where next?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101983/original/image-20151116-26090-1ugsn6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What do Ceduna and the other trial sites for the Healthy Welfare Card have in common? All are country towns with a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Ceduna%2C_South_Australia.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Nachoman-au</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Given the high profile of Indigenous disadvantage, is it a coincidence that certain welfare reforms first appear in Indigenous communities before being mainstreamed?</p>
<p>Under income management, a portion of a welfare payment is restricted in how it can be spent rather than being paid directly in cash. The Commonwealth <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2011-2012/IncomeManagementOverview">first introduced compulsory income management</a> to 73 remote Indigenous communities under the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007.</p>
<p>In 2010, income management was extended to non-Indigenous welfare recipients in the territory. <a href="http://caepr.anu.edu.au/others/Report-1418859519.php">More than 90%</a> of recipients, however, were still Indigenous. </p>
<p>In 2012, the government began rolling out trials to <a href="http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/income-management/about-income-management#a4">depressed regional centres</a> across Australia, including Bankstown, Shepparton, Logan, Playford and Rockhampton. The difference was that income management was now subject to referrals, instead of compulsory. Indigenous recipients were now in the minority – <a href="https://data.gov.au/dataset/3b1f1fb7-adb5-48ea-8305-9205df0a298c/resource/bceeda43-d289-4cf4-86ec-b82e50361dc0/download/incomemanagementsummary2january2015.pdf">more than 80%</a> were non-Indigenous.</p>
<h2>Universal policy was Forrest Review goal</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102000/original/image-20151116-4970-zdsl02.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Creating Parity review recommended that income management smartcards be applied to most welfare recipients.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://indigenousjobsandtrainingreview.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/3838%20Forrest%20Review%20Update%20-%20Full%20Report%20-%20Complete%20PDF%20PRO1.pdf">Commonwealth</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the Coalition government implements the recommendations of its <a href="https://indigenousjobsandtrainingreview.dpmc.gov.au/forrest-review">Forrest Review</a>, aimed at “creating parity” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, the same trajectory may be proposed for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-cashless-welfare-card-trial-will-leave-us-none-the-wiser-49360">cashless smartcard</a> called the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/cashless-welfare-card-tackles-family-violence/story-fn9hm1pm-1227610073388?sv=97512b273a22b6d248b29dfa9a896dc2">Healthy Welfare Card</a>. </p>
<p>Although the review explicitly focused on Indigenous disadvantage, Andrew Forrest was uninhibited in making his recommendations <a href="https://indigenousjobsandtrainingreview.dpmc.gov.au/how-healthy-welfare-card-would-work">apply to all</a> “vulnerable” Australians.</p>
<p>As with the <a href="http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/income-management/basicscard">BasicsCard</a> used for compulsory income management in NT Aboriginal communities from 2008, Forrest recommended that Healthy Welfare Cards be mandatory for all unemployed persons, carers, single parents and people with disabilities. </p>
<p>Essentially, that would be everyone except veterans and aged pensioners. Alert to the implications for the rest of Australia, the Australian Council of Social Service immediately <a href="http://www.acoss.org.au/media_release/groups_call_for_rejection_of_forrest_review_healthy_welfare_card/">opposed the move</a>.</p>
<p>The parliamentary secretary responsible for implementing the policy, Alan Tudge, <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2Ffd2f3451-f05d-425a-9815-471294607839%2F0009%22">has said</a> that trial sites were:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… selected on the basis of high levels of welfare dependence, where gambling, alcohol and illegal drug abuse are causing unacceptable levels of harm and there is an openness to participate from within the community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It went unsaid that this involved sites with high numbers of Indigenous people, along with sufficient leadership and public support to back the trials.</p>
<h2>Trials involve a certain kind of town</h2>
<p>The locations first <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/trial-communities-back-no-grog-cashless-welfare-cards/story-fn9hm1pm-1227395552860?sv=44ea10098c0cbf2cb26e8422791a9a1c">mooted for the card rollout</a> – Kununurra, Moree and Ceduna – are country towns with freehold title, with Indigenous populations roughly one-quarter to one-third of the total. These towns face serious social problems, in addition to those related to welfare reform, which demand a coordinated government response.</p>
<p>After community objections emerged, Moree <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4279891.htm">was dropped</a>. It was replaced with Halls Creek, also a rural town, but with a population that is about 75% Indigenous. After <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/indigenous-communities-against-trials-of-cashless-welfare-card/story-e6frg6zo-1227565185570">divisions</a> emerged it too was dropped. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the government appears to be choosing trial sites from the small pool of towns (roughly 50 in number) with a mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous population (25-75% Indigenous). The vast majority of towns in Australia are either overwhelmingly Indigenous (more than 75%) or overwhelmingly non-Indigenous (less than 25% Indigenous).</p>
<p>This week the government announced that the third trial site would be <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/hope-for-kids-in-the-welfare-cards-say-indigenous-elders/story-fn9hm1pm-1227611508691?sv=dd6c583595cc88764875c9025de23240">Wyndham</a>. Again, it’s a rural town where the Indigenous population is just over 50%.</p>
<p>If the Healthy Welfare Card is an Indigenous reform, why target these mixed country towns instead of Indigenous communities? We can think of two explanations.</p>
<p>First, the government must apply the reform equally to non-Indigenous welfare recipients to avoid accusations of targeting Indigenous people and facing charges of racial discrimination. Even in Ceduna, where only 25% of the population is Indigenous, Indigenous people still constitute <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Debit_Card_Trial/Report">an estimated 72%</a> of welfare recipients. In <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Debit_Card_Trial/Submissions">his submission</a> to a Senate inquiry into the trial, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda warned:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In view of these percentages, the trial may have a disproportionate impact upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these locations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The second explanation is that the Healthy Welfare Card is not an Indigenous reform at all, but intended for all Australians. On this view, the government is using the tragic circumstances of Indigenous disadvantage to legitimise a universal reform not otherwise palatable to the public. </p>
<p>Would the same public approval exist for trials in a non-Indigenous “population of high levels of welfare dependence” with “gambling, alcohol and illegal drug abuse” problems? Are the only people who fit this profile Indigenous? </p>
<p>Why not apply the trials as an extension to income management trials (Bankstown, Shepparton, Logan, Playford or Rockhampton), which already include a large number of non-Indigenous welfare recipients?</p>
<h2>So where is this policy headed?</h2>
<p>In understanding the battlefield of Indigenous affairs, it always helps to look backwards. When the Howard government launched the NT Intervention in mid-2007, it <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/racial_discrimination/publications/rda-nter/NTERandRDAPublication12%20December2011.pdf">suspended the Racial Discrimination Act</a>. That removed the possibility of a legal rights challenge.</p>
<p>Only after income management was applied equally to all unemployed citizens in the territory did the Rudd-Gillard government reinstate the act in 2010. This then allowed the <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/library/prspub/1511200/upload_binary/1511200.pdf;fileType=application/pdf">spread of “race-neutral” income management</a> to other parts of Australia.</p>
<p>Suspending the act required a huge political alignment. This was largely legitimated by the crisis of child abuse in the Northern Territory, including claims of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/pedophile-ring-claims-unfounded-20090704-d8h9.html">paedophile rings</a>, which were later discredited. It would be very difficult for any government to achieve such moralistic bipartisan support again.</p>
<p>So does the government need a work-around by seeking out trial sites that are mixed rural towns with significant Indigenous populations? </p>
<p>The government is walking a fine line here. It must not be seen to single out Indigenous people, but, at the same time, it invokes the crisis of Indigenous disadvantage to legitimate the reform. </p>
<p>Is the Healthy Welfare Card an Indigenous reform or a universal reform in disguise? Let’s call it what it is.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Moran receives funding from an Australian Research Council Indigenous Discovery grant.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carroll Go-Sam receives funding from Australian Research Council Discovery Indigenous Grant. </span></em></p>Income management was first applied to Indigenous communities before being implemented more widely. The Healthy Welfare Card policy appears to be on this same path.Mark Moran, Chair of Development Effectiveness, The University of QueenslandCarroll Go-Sam, ARC Discovery Indigenous Award Researcher, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/418162015-05-18T02:12:21Z2015-05-18T02:12:21ZA $147m budget saving missed: income management has failed<p>The expensive and extensive government-funded evaluation of income management in the Northern Territory clearly failed to find it worth ongoing funding. Note the following significant findings in the <a href="http://caepr.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/cck_misc_documents/2014/12/Evaluation%20of%20New%20Income%20Management%20in%20the%20Northern%20Territory_summary%20report.pdf">summary report</a> of <a href="http://caepr.anu.edu.au/others/Report-1418859519.php">the final evaluation report</a> on NT income management programs: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The evaluation could not find any substantive evidence of the program having significant changes relative to its key policy objectives, including changing people’s behaviours.</p>
<p>More general measures of wellbeing at the community level show no evidence of improvement, including for children.</p>
<p>The evaluation found that, rather than building capacity and independence, for many the program has acted to make people more dependent on welfare.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet the 2015-16 budget has not only included a two-year extension of the services to 25,000 recipients, but <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/05_2015/2015_budget_fact_sheet_-_income_management_-_final_0_0.pdf">signals more expansion</a> of the basic concept. This makes no sense as most forms of income management fail to show positive outcomes, despite some individuals, mainly voluntary participants, claiming income management has benefited them.</p>
<p>The included funding is for new technology and commercial involvement in the future program, which suggests the Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest version of a cashless <a href="http://indigenousjobsandtrainingreview.dpmc.gov.au/chapter-2-healthy-welfare-card">welfare card</a> is the next step. Why would the Forrest version offer better outcomes, apart from cutting administration costs by removing Centrelink? </p>
<p>The announcement below fails to acknowledge there are any questions about benefits of the program. The budget statement <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/05_2015/2015_budget_fact_sheet_-_income_management_-_final_0_0.pdf">claims</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Income Management 2015 Budget</strong></p>
<p>Income management is a tool that helps people better budget their welfare payments and ensures they are getting the basic essentials of life such as food, housing, electricity and education.</p>
<p><strong>What was announced in the 2015 budget?</strong></p>
<p>Income management will continue for another two years in all locations where it currently operates, with possible expansion to four new communities. This $144.6 million investment will build on the positive impacts of income management; giving participants more control of their welfare money, improving family stability, reducing stress and financial hardship. It will also give Government time to fully test alternative approaches to welfare payments quarantining.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Returning to the evaluation report, there are further clear statements, backed by data in the <a href="http://caepr.anu.edu.au/others/Report-1418859519.php">body of the report</a> by the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW, that do not recommend continuing the program in any of its current forms:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Summarising the impact</strong></p>
<p>Taking the results as a whole, the conclusion is that there is no evidence of any consistent positive impacts on problematic behaviours related to alcohol, drugs, gambling, and financial harassment, in the extent to which financial hardships and stresses are experienced – for example, running out of food, not being able to pay bills, or on community level outcomes such as children not being looked after properly, school attendance, drinking, and financial harassment. (p.307)</p>
<p>Despite the magnitude of the program the evaluation does not find any consistent evidence of income management having a significant systematic positive impact. (p.317)</p>
<p>Data on spending point to continued major problems of diet and poor levels of fruit and vegetable consumption, in particular for Indigenous people living in remote communities. There is no evidence of income management having resulted in changes in spending or consumption, including on alcohol, tobacco, fresh fruit and vegetables. (p.317)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given the report was delivered to the government last September and released publicly in December, it is puzzling that there has been no acknowledgement of the flaws. In late March, the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/healthy-welfare-card-trials-to-tackle-violence-and-alcohol-abuse-20150322-1m4uk2.html">government announced</a> that welfare recipients would be given cashless cards to stop them spending money on alcohol and drugs in a bid to combat violence against women and children. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Alan Tudge said the government was planning trials of the cards “in a small number” of places, which were yet to be decided, later this year. </p>
<p>And now it is in the budget. This decision clearly ignores the findings of the evaluation report, which seriously undermine any government claims that quarantining incomes is effective in changing behaviour or that its new card will affect spending positively and reduce drinking. The report does not recommend continuing the program in any of its current forms.</p>
<h2>Prejudice makes it easier to ignore evidence</h2>
<p>The question arises: why does this particular policy change receive so little attention or objections? Despite the threat that controlling income may well alter the basis for general income support, the possibilities stay beneath the public debate radar. Few in the welfare sector have raised objections or questions.</p>
<p>One can only assume an element of racial and wider prejudice is operating, as the original and many ongoing recipients have been Indigenous. Income management started as part of the Howard government’s NT Emergency Response to a child sexual abuse report. </p>
<p>Originally, the income management program was targeted at all Commonwealth payment recipients in 72 Indigenous communities, controlling 50% of their spending. It required suspending the Racial Discrimination Act. There was no explanation as to how financial controls would fix child abuse.</p>
<p>When the ALP took office some months later, it expanded the numbers and set up a review. Despite the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/nt/content/2006/s2400936.htm">Yu report</a> raising some questions and doubts, the new government extended the scheme to the rest of the NT. It was de-racialised but still covers mostly Indigenous recipients in the NT, with smaller mainly non-Indigenous and Indigenous pilots elsewhere.</p>
<p>Now, eight years on and despite all the evidence to the contrary, the budget papers state clearly:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Government is investing $147 million to deliver more streamlined and cost-effective income management. Around 25,000 people will continue to benefit from this programme designed to support vulnerable Australians.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why? How about some serious economic rationality, both to save taxpayers’ money and improve social well-being?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eva Cox does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Various studies, culminating in the final evaluation report of income management in the Northern Territory, have found such programs don’t achieve the claimed benefits. Why did the budget extend them?Eva Cox, Professorial Fellow Jumbunna IHL, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.