Stop the Welfare Card for Disability Pensioners Petition
Mar 24, 2016 17:22:58 GMT 7
bangalorebiker, Denise, and 3 more like this
Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2016 17:22:58 GMT 7
www.change.org/p/hon-christian-porter-mp-stop-the-healthy-welfare-card-for-disability-pensioners
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*****MEMBERS OF THIS FORUM : ALL PLEASE OPEN THE LINK AND SIGN THE PETITION. PLEASE PASS ON TO OTHER CONTACTS********
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Petitioning Minister for Social Services Hon. Christian Porter MP and 1 other
Stop the Healthy Welfare Card for Disability Pensioners
Belinda Rogers Drouin, Australia
To the Hon.Christian Porter MP, Minister for Social Services
and Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister
This Petition is to stop the rollout of the Healthy Welfare Card to all welfare recipients across Australia and in particular to people in receipt of Disability Support Pension and Carer's Pension. The Healthy Welfare card will quarantine 80% of a person’s CentreLink payment onto the card leaving only 20% available in cash for discretionary spending. The card will be identifiable and therefore stigmatizing and will restrict purchases that can be made, preventing the purchase of alcohol and cigarettes, and preventing money being paid into people’s own bank accounts to service direct debit payments, mortgage and rent payments and other essential requirements.
People on DSP are already doing it tough and are unable to earn enough money to get off CentreLink payments by getting back into the full time workforce due to the severity of their disabilities.
The Healthy Welfare Card will see them permanently severely disadvantaged and in extreme financial difficulties through no fault of their own. The vast majority of people on DSP and Carer's Pension do not abuse alcohol or drugs and have every right to live with dignity and autonomy.
Many people on DSP are also single parents and are budgeting with great skill and care to raise their children on a very limited income. We shop at Op Shops which are usually cash only, buy food from Farmer’s Markets, also cash only, and need cash to pay for our children to take part in school activities such as casual clothes days, pay for their bus fares etc.
As a person with MS I need to give my support workers cash to buy my groceries as legally I cannot give them my PIN number. My DSP payments go directly into my mortgage account. With the Healthy Welfare Card and only 20% of my income available to me in cash I will be homeless and starving. Many people have direct debits set up to pay for their rental and I also have direct debits set up to pay for essential medical equipment costs. Having 20% of my income available to me in cash won’t even cover my chemist bill let alone my specialists’ out of pocket costs. And these are costs that most people with a disability have to bear.
On the one hand the Government is rolling out the NDIS to give people more freedom and choice and empowering them to live a more fulfilling life and on the other hand they are removing choice and acting in a grossly paternalistic manner and disempowering people in an incredible abuse of freedoms. The issue of privacy is also one of great concern. How will the card be tracked and what guarantees of privacy are being put in place so that our purchases remain private? It smacks of Big Brother and surveillance of a vulnerable population.
The Basics Card has already been in operation in the Northern Territory for nine years with no evidence of having reduced alcoholism or drug abuse. We, the petitioners undersigned, ask the Government to review the Healthy Welfare Card and to implement an evidentiary proven method of assisting people with alcohol and drug dependency issues rather than using a broad and crude social control programme.
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*****MEMBERS OF THIS FORUM : ALL PLEASE OPEN THE LINK AND SIGN THE PETITION. PLEASE PASS ON TO OTHER CONTACTS********
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Petitioning Minister for Social Services Hon. Christian Porter MP and 1 other
Stop the Healthy Welfare Card for Disability Pensioners
Belinda Rogers Drouin, Australia
To the Hon.Christian Porter MP, Minister for Social Services
and Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister
This Petition is to stop the rollout of the Healthy Welfare Card to all welfare recipients across Australia and in particular to people in receipt of Disability Support Pension and Carer's Pension. The Healthy Welfare card will quarantine 80% of a person’s CentreLink payment onto the card leaving only 20% available in cash for discretionary spending. The card will be identifiable and therefore stigmatizing and will restrict purchases that can be made, preventing the purchase of alcohol and cigarettes, and preventing money being paid into people’s own bank accounts to service direct debit payments, mortgage and rent payments and other essential requirements.
People on DSP are already doing it tough and are unable to earn enough money to get off CentreLink payments by getting back into the full time workforce due to the severity of their disabilities.
The Healthy Welfare Card will see them permanently severely disadvantaged and in extreme financial difficulties through no fault of their own. The vast majority of people on DSP and Carer's Pension do not abuse alcohol or drugs and have every right to live with dignity and autonomy.
Many people on DSP are also single parents and are budgeting with great skill and care to raise their children on a very limited income. We shop at Op Shops which are usually cash only, buy food from Farmer’s Markets, also cash only, and need cash to pay for our children to take part in school activities such as casual clothes days, pay for their bus fares etc.
As a person with MS I need to give my support workers cash to buy my groceries as legally I cannot give them my PIN number. My DSP payments go directly into my mortgage account. With the Healthy Welfare Card and only 20% of my income available to me in cash I will be homeless and starving. Many people have direct debits set up to pay for their rental and I also have direct debits set up to pay for essential medical equipment costs. Having 20% of my income available to me in cash won’t even cover my chemist bill let alone my specialists’ out of pocket costs. And these are costs that most people with a disability have to bear.
On the one hand the Government is rolling out the NDIS to give people more freedom and choice and empowering them to live a more fulfilling life and on the other hand they are removing choice and acting in a grossly paternalistic manner and disempowering people in an incredible abuse of freedoms. The issue of privacy is also one of great concern. How will the card be tracked and what guarantees of privacy are being put in place so that our purchases remain private? It smacks of Big Brother and surveillance of a vulnerable population.
The Basics Card has already been in operation in the Northern Territory for nine years with no evidence of having reduced alcoholism or drug abuse. We, the petitioners undersigned, ask the Government to review the Healthy Welfare Card and to implement an evidentiary proven method of assisting people with alcohol and drug dependency issues rather than using a broad and crude social control programme.