Cashless Welfare Card

[moonflyte]

Could this be the end of the tragedy of alcohol fueled violence and child neglect.

A cashless welfare card aimed at stemming alcohol abuse would be rolled out across the country under a welfare reform the Turnbull government is considering taking to the election.

As regional trouble spots line up to be chosen for trials of the government’s new Healthy Welfare Card to begin next month, The Australian understands the Coalition may seek an election mandate to extend the card to welfare recipients across regional Australia if they achieve positive results.

Under the new system — proposed by mining magnate ­Andrew Forrest in his review of the welfare system in 2014 — 80 per cent of a person’s government payment would be ­quarantined to a bank card that could not be used to buy alcohol and gambling products, nor ­converted to cash.

The remaining 20 per cent could be accessible as cash.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/national-cashless-welfare-card-plan-by-turnbull-gov...

[esayaf]

The Liberal government has kicked 800000 off the disability support pension. I'm not ill enough to qualify nowadays

[esayaf]

And having qualified for assistance don't then tell me what I can and can't buy.

[justpolls]

Your social security programme sounds like our superannuation.

Yeah, they sound very similar.

The term pension kept confusing me because in the U.S. a pension is a retirement benefit that is payed by your employer.

[imastawka]

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@esayaf wrote:
The Liberal government has kicked 800000 off the disability support pension. I'm not ill enough to qualify nowadays

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Have you even tried, or just  believe they won't give it to you?

Financial support for people who have a physical, intellectual or psychiatric condition that stops them from working or people who are permanently blind.

Eligibility basics

• aged between 16 years of age and Age Pension age, and either
• permanently blind, or
• have been assessed as having a physical, intellectual, or psychiatric impairment, and
  • unable to work, or to be retrained for work, for 15 hours or more per week at or above the relevant minimum wage within the next 2 years because of the impairment
  • have been assessed as having a severe impairment or as having actively participated in a Program of Support

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/disability-support-pension

Worth enquiring IMO

[***super_nova***]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

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I have public housing at the rear of my place and there is certianly one family that chose welfare as a lifestyle choice. They keep having babies, have booted their teenage daughter out ( now homeless ) to illegally sub lease her bedroom to a "tenant" and have a thriving dope business going. ( when the porch light is on, they are open for trade ) . Personally I dont appreciate having to work extra hours to pay tax so that they can sit on their butts smoking dope all day.

The other house has people with genuine health problems. They are unable to work, will never be able to maintain regular employment and should be looked after by a compassionate society.

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Just because the one lot behind you is committing fraud, do you think it is fair that the rest of the people in that block, who you admit genuinely need society support, will have their life made impossible by this card that will severely limit their shopping options?

[moonflyte]

I suppose a lot kicked off the DSS were the middle eastern drug  families and others of that ilk. I don’t have any objection to that.

[***super_nova***]

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@djilukjilly wrote:

I suppose a lot kicked off the DSS were the middle eastern drug  families and others of that ilk. I don’t have any objection to that.

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Cancelling benefits to people who did not qualify to start with is a totally different issue to people being now consider not ill/disabled enough.  Not that the requirements were ever very lenient.  About 20 years ago, when I was being treated for cancer, I met at the hospital young women with terminal cancer.  She was divorced with 2 small children, and she had to report to the dole office once a fortnight to get her "sickness benefit", towards the end of her life the benefit was  times cut off several, because she was too sick to make it. Yet, they would not give her the disability pension because somehow she did not qualify. 

I wonder how many of the people who lost their disability pension were just too ill or weak to fight for their rights, or do not have a doctor who put the right words on the certificate.

[myoclon1cjerk]

Raise the legal drinking age to 45 😉

[imastawka]

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@myoclon1cjerk wrote:
Raise the legal drinking age to 45 😉

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Yeah.   That'll work.    Cos no-one under 18 drinks 

[esayaf]

I did make a claim and was rejected