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]

Valid point joh. Also having experience with Centrelinks app I'm worried that this card will not work most of the time as their app constantly claims "service not available try again later". As a diabetic I guess I could ring an ambulance and get taken to hospital if I'm unable to eat due to the card not working but that'll cost taxpayers more.
The card is going to push up the cost of administration of welfare surely those that are concerned "their" money is already being wasted by welfare recipients should be concerned about higher administration costs

[esayaf]

If the card does eventuate. I will be seeking to start a class action against the government over it.

[lane-ends]

Annoys me when many of the welfare bashers put people down with little money who try to claim as much as they legitimately can, At the same time they themselves are quite happy to come up with questionable tax deductions so they can have even more money they are entitled to.

A cashless card for those who have a track record of financial mismanagement maybe, but certainly not as a default method, especially not because of your postcode.

[esayaf]

Quite obviously every one has forgotten that the basics card introduced in the northern territory was a failure. So how is calling it a different name going to now make it successfull

[go-tazz]

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/income-management/basicscard

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2011/10/06/basics-card-causes-anger-sydney

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-31/welfare-recipients-skirting-around-income-management-rules/570...

[imastawka]

Thanks, Tazz

Very informative reading

[esayaf]

Especially the bit about it costing $4500 to $7000 to administer for each participant. That's good use of taxpayers money

[esayaf]

So basically if the government does a trial and it doesn't work they just change the name and do it again. Such a shame that the money being wasted isn't going to health or the like

[imastawka]

Read Tazz's links

There are trials being done now in selected areas

in NSW, Vic, SA and Qld

[esayaf]

I did read them. How do you think I got the figures