THE cashless welfare card program would cause “significant hardship” if rolled out nationwide, Dunkley MP Peta Murphy says.
The program sees 80 per cent of welfare payments made to an individual put onto a card, where it cannot be used on alcohol or gambling products.
The government is trialling the card in four communities – Ceduna, SA, Bundaberg and Harvey Bay, QLD, Goldfields, WA, and East Kimberley, WA. It moved last week to make the trials permanent in those locations, but could not gain the support it needed in Parliament. The trial has instead been extended for two years.
Ms Murphy said that any rollout of the card in Frankston would not be accepted by residents. “My community doesn’t want the cashless debit card and neither do I,” she said.
“One in five people in our community is on a pension. The Liberal government should not force the cashless debit card onto aged pensioners, carer pensioners and disability support pensioners. I asked the minister in Parliament to rule out extending the cashless debit card to pensioners, aged, carer and disability. He wouldn’t.
“The Liberal government has consistently failed to prove this card even works and now want to expand it. It has caused significant hardship on people already on the card. Many have been prevented from purchasing basics and essentials at affordable prices.”
A statement from the Australian Unemployed Workers Union read “a leaked report into cashless welfare trials shows that the bill to make the card permanent and the government’s approach to democratic process is a farce. It proves what communities and advocates have been saying since the trials began – cashless welfare doesn’t help people and violates their rights.”
“This latest report adds to the mounting evidence, including that provided by dozens of representatives to the recent senate inquiry, that the card does not work. It proves that not only should the trials not be made permanent, but that cashless welfare is a failed experiment that must be stopped altogether before it causes any more damage.”
A single person with no children on JobSeeker currently receives $565.70 a fortnight, as well as a $250 COVID-19 supplement. The federal government will slash that supplement to $150 a fortnight on 1 January. As of August 2020 there were 1.6 million people on the payment.
The Australian Council of Social Service defines the poverty line at $457 a week for a single adult living alone.
The cashless debit card has come under fire for disproportionately affecting Indigenous Australian people. The ABC has reported that 82 per cent of people on the card in the East Kimberley trial region are Indigenous. 76 per cent of people on the card in the Ceduna region are Indigenous.