INCOME MANAGEMENT Quarantining Centrelink Payments is coming to Bankstown

JUNE 2011

FACT SHEET 1
Pensioners and others receiving social security payments should be concerned that the Government could be telling them how to spend their meagre pensions and allowances (Welfare Rights, 2011) Income Management has made it harder to look after my children. We need investment in jobs and services in our communities, but the government is more interested in controlling us (Barbara Shaw, Aboriginal town camp leader, 2009)

Where are the target Locations?

As part of the 2011 Federal Budget, the Australian government announced that it plans to spend $117.5 million over the next five years to introduce Income Management to five disadvantaged areas across Australia. These locations are: Bankstown, New South Wales Logan, Queensland Rockhampton. Queensland Playford, South Australia Shepparton, Victoria Income Management will commence in these sites from 1 July 2012 and will compulsorily apply to people Centrelink considers "vulnerable to financial crisis", along with people referred by child protection authorities. The Government estimates that 20,000 people will participate in Income Management in the five locations over the next five years. This is around 1000 persons per location each year.

Centrelink will also offer voluntary income management to all welfare recipients and will grant incentive payments of $250 every six months to people who continue to use it. Centrelink will issue a BasicsCard to people who have had their payments quarantined. This card may only be used to purchase priority items eg. Food, clothing and utilities from the government approved outlets such as: Woolworths, Coles, Target, Kmart, Best and Less and Big W. QUICK FACTS No evidence to suggest that Income Management has worked in the past. Income management stigmatises and curtails peoples civil and economic rights and undermines their dignity. Government approved outlets become the police of purchases under the BasicsCard. The administration of this program is costly, and funds could be spent on creating opportunities and jobs in the target locations.

What is Income Management?

Income Management is a policy which "quarantines" 50 70 per cent of Centrelink payments onto a BasicsCard. This card can only be used to buy "priority items" at government approved stores. Welfare recipients in Bankstown and the other trial sites assessed by Centrelink to be vulnerable to financial crisis will have 50% of their payment quarantined. Parents and legal guardians referred to Centrelink by child protection authorities (Community Services) will have 70% of their income quarantined.

When did it start?

Income Management was introduced by the Howard Government in 2007 to the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities for all people on Centrelink. This was justified as an emergency measure claimed to be protecting Aboriginal children. The ALP government extended the program as a core part of the NT Intervention, subsequently quarantining 50% of the benefit and pension incomes of all residents in 73 designated Aboriginal communities (Cox, 2011).
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FACT SHEET - I N C O M E M A N A G E M E N T Quarantining Centrelink Payments is coming to Bankstown

However, when the UN was highly critical of the programs suspension of Racial Discrimination Act as it breached Australias obligations under it, the government changed its approach. It decided to deracialise the program by passing legislation in June 2010 that allowed them to expand it. This meant that they can quarantine the incomes of anyone on benefits in certain time or age based categories in any declared area. Since then the Australian government expanded the program to Western Australia, in the Kimberly region and metropolitan area of Perth. The two measures that were trialled are the Child Protection Scheme of Income Management and Voluntary Income Management. What does the evidence tell us? Income Management in the Northern Territory (NT) has been widely criticised, both locally and internationally as it stigmatises and humiliates welfare recipients, wastes money on bureaucratic administration and discriminates specifically against indigenous people. In the NT Income Management costs approximately $4,400 per person per year in administration costs alone. There is no evidence base for the expansion of the system. The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs states that Income Management will deter people from spending their Centrelink payments on alcohol, tobacco and gambling and will promote spending on fresh food, clothing and the payments of bills. Independent research conducted by the Menzies School of Health, Darwin suggests that Income Management has had no beneficial effect on tobacco and cigarette sales, soft drink or fruit and vegetable sales (Brimblecombe, Donnell, Barnes, Garnggulkpuy Dhurrkay, Thomas & Bailie, 2010). An independent report released by the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA) concludes that compulsory income management in the NT has profoundly long-term negative impacts on psychological and social health, wellbeing and cultural integrity (March 2010). A government commissioned evaluation Income Management in Western Australia conducted by ORIMA suggested that this system has improved

individuals capacity to budget (ORIMA, 2010). However, the Western Australian Council of Social Services (WACOSS) has criticised this evaluation and remains strongly opposed to compulsory Income Management as an expensive, ineffective policy which curtails peoples basic rights (WACOSS, 2011). International research suggests welfare reforms that utilise sanctions such as the income management system place additional stresses on families with young children and has the potential to increase family breakdown and child abuse (Lucas, McIntosh, Petticrew, Roberts & Shiell, 2008)

W HA T YO U CA N DO
Tell your colleagues, friends and the people you know about this and distribute this Fact Sheet. Contact the Member for Blaxland, Jason Clare on 02 9790 2466 and express your concerns about this program. You can also make an appointment for a meeting with the Member for Blaxland. Write letters of concerns to: o Hon Jason Clare, Member for Blaxland, PO Box 153 Bankstown NSW 1885 o Hon Tanya Pilbersek, Minister for Human Services; Minister for Social Inclusion, PO Box 6022 House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600 Join in the Day of Action which is scheduled to take place mid July. Stay updated or get involved in the campaign coordination by sending an email to: say.no.to.gov.im@gmail.com

For more information: Semra Guler, WSCF on 9687 6974 Stella Hristias, BCRG on 9796-2931 Randa Kattan, ACA on 9709-4333 Violet Roumeliotis, Metro MRC on 9789-3744 Loretta Vieceli, BAMN on 9796-2235

This Fact Sheet was developed by the Coalition of Say No to Governments Income Management - Not in Bankstown, Not Anywhere. The information was adapted from the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydneys Fact Sheet.
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