Territorians to be guinea pigs as Income Management goes from bad to worse - Media Release 22 June 2010

 

 

 

 

 

Federal Government legislation to expand the income management system across the whole of the Northern Territory is “simply bad public policy”, said Wendy Morton, Executive Director of the Northern Territory Council of Social Service (NTCOSS), today.

 

“The existing income management scheme has no evidence base, costs a small fortune to administer, and is applied indiscriminately across the entire population of prescribed communities. The expanded scheme will only compound these problems.” 

 

“The trials in Cape York demonstrate that assisting people by providing case management and support, rather than punishing them with income management, is what makes the difference.”

 

The new scheme, which was approved by the Senate last night, has far reaching implications. People under 25 – Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal - living in the suburbs of Darwin and Alice Springs, who have been unemployed for more than 13 weeks over a six month period will be issued with a BasicsCard and compulsorily income managed.

 

A fifty year old who has worked and paid taxes for half a lifetime, but who has been unemployed for more than 12 months in the past two years will be issued with a BasicsCard and compulsorily income managed.

 

Seeking an exemption to this determination is intrusive and daunting, involving a deeply personal discussion with a Centrelink customer service officer. Clients can expect to be asked how they plan to pay for their groceries, whether they have given money to family or friends, made purchases on lay-by, or had their power disconnected.

 

All Centrelink recipients - including those on aged pensions and disability pensions - can be deemed ‘vulnerable’ by a Centrelink social worker on the basis of a file review, and made subject to income quarantining restrictions.

 

“These new arrangements are authoritarian and intrusive” observed Ms Morton today. “They will apply only in the NT, where Territorians will be used as government guinea-pigs. The federal government needs to stop pushing people around and start to provide them with some real assistance.”

Media Inquiries: Graham Ring – 0404 362 290