Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2014 5:41:31 GMT 7
Looks like there is plenty of taxpayers money available when it comes to rolling out the basics card and income management.
THE federal government’s controversial income management system that forces welfare recipients to spend payments on food, rent, clothing and other basics will receive a funding boost and a one-year extension in next month’s budget.
The Australian can reveal the trial scheme will be one of the few funding areas within the Department of Social Services to be spared the knife. The scheme will be given extra funding until June 30 next year, when its success will be reviewed.
The scheme, which operates in Shepparton (Victoria), Bankstown (NSW), Logan and Rockhampton (Queensland) and Playford (South Australia), will be extended to Ceduna (South Australia) in the budget.
More than 2000 people are on income management across the sites. Welfare recipients are forced on to income management by a state or territory child protection authority, a Centrelink social worker or, where they had rental arrears greater than a month, by a state housing authority.
Under the scheme, income is quarantined to ensure basic needs are funded. Welfare recipients who volunteer have 50 per cent of their payments under management, while those who are forced on to the scheme have 70 per cent of their money managed.
Introduced by the previous Labor government, the scheme has been backed by Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews, who had wanted to introduce income management in other communities in Australia.
Mr Andrews has previously argued the scheme should be considered for a broader rollout but only Ceduna will be added because of concerns about the implementation costs.
The Australian has revealed that the number of people with their welfare benefits quarantined for essential living expenses increased by a record 500 per cent last year, from 423 in May to 2204 in December.
Young people were responsible for 72 per cent of the rise. Voluntary income management was extended from Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in July 2012.
Responsible for the rise was the targeting last July by the former government of young people deemed to be at risk.
National Welfare Rights Network president Maree O’Halloran said the scheme was a waste of money.
“The compulsory income management scheme sets us a mini-bureaucracy to manage people’s lives,’’ she said.
“It is also a very expensive program, ranging from up to $7900 per person in remote areas to about $4600 per person in other locations.
“National Welfare Rights questions the validity of expanding such an expensive scheme when the government is frightening people about the budget deficit. Moreover, there is no evidence that the scheme actually helps people into paid work.’’
The Greens have said that the federal government should abandon income management, following a sharp rise in the number of vulnerable young people being targeted.
The decision to expand the income management trial follows a West Australian review which found income management for families referred by child protection officials had been implemented effectively in the state, and that it helped parents buy essentials for their children and cut violence and substance abuse.
“Income management was seen to assist vulnerable young people (who were not parents) by helping them manage their lives and affording them safety and housing. Income management afforded older vulnerable people protection from financial harassment, especially in the Kimberley region,’’ the WA report said.
THE federal government’s controversial income management system that forces welfare recipients to spend payments on food, rent, clothing and other basics will receive a funding boost and a one-year extension in next month’s budget.
The Australian can reveal the trial scheme will be one of the few funding areas within the Department of Social Services to be spared the knife. The scheme will be given extra funding until June 30 next year, when its success will be reviewed.
The scheme, which operates in Shepparton (Victoria), Bankstown (NSW), Logan and Rockhampton (Queensland) and Playford (South Australia), will be extended to Ceduna (South Australia) in the budget.
More than 2000 people are on income management across the sites. Welfare recipients are forced on to income management by a state or territory child protection authority, a Centrelink social worker or, where they had rental arrears greater than a month, by a state housing authority.
Under the scheme, income is quarantined to ensure basic needs are funded. Welfare recipients who volunteer have 50 per cent of their payments under management, while those who are forced on to the scheme have 70 per cent of their money managed.
Introduced by the previous Labor government, the scheme has been backed by Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews, who had wanted to introduce income management in other communities in Australia.
Mr Andrews has previously argued the scheme should be considered for a broader rollout but only Ceduna will be added because of concerns about the implementation costs.
The Australian has revealed that the number of people with their welfare benefits quarantined for essential living expenses increased by a record 500 per cent last year, from 423 in May to 2204 in December.
Young people were responsible for 72 per cent of the rise. Voluntary income management was extended from Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in July 2012.
Responsible for the rise was the targeting last July by the former government of young people deemed to be at risk.
National Welfare Rights Network president Maree O’Halloran said the scheme was a waste of money.
“The compulsory income management scheme sets us a mini-bureaucracy to manage people’s lives,’’ she said.
“It is also a very expensive program, ranging from up to $7900 per person in remote areas to about $4600 per person in other locations.
“National Welfare Rights questions the validity of expanding such an expensive scheme when the government is frightening people about the budget deficit. Moreover, there is no evidence that the scheme actually helps people into paid work.’’
The Greens have said that the federal government should abandon income management, following a sharp rise in the number of vulnerable young people being targeted.
The decision to expand the income management trial follows a West Australian review which found income management for families referred by child protection officials had been implemented effectively in the state, and that it helped parents buy essentials for their children and cut violence and substance abuse.
“Income management was seen to assist vulnerable young people (who were not parents) by helping them manage their lives and affording them safety and housing. Income management afforded older vulnerable people protection from financial harassment, especially in the Kimberley region,’’ the WA report said.