The Minister for Families and Social Services, Mr Paul Fletcher, has announced the Australian Government’s expansion and extension of the cashless debit card, with Income Management participants set to transition onto the card and technical enhancements made to card functionality.

The Minister said that from January 2020 the Government will expand the Cashless Debit Card, with nearly 22,500 Income Management participants to transition from the BasicsCard onto the Cashless Debit Card.

‘The Cashless Debit Card offers a more streamlined approach to welfare quarantining and benefits to taxpayers, with operational costs of well under $1,000 per head in the most recent expansion site.’ Mr Fletcher said.

For existing participants on the Income Management and BasicsCard program, there will be no change to the operating principles, including the percentage to be quarantined, which will remain at 50 per cent, unless the community requests a higher percentage through consultations.

Mr Fletcher also said the Government have committed $129 million over four years for these improvements and extensions of the Cashless Debit Card. This will be part of the Budget announced next week.

(Source: Media release)

 

From the blog:

Comments are closed.