There are previous few details available about the government’s new Centrelink EFTPOS debit card for welfare recipients, and certainly many questions about it still unanswered
Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig and Minister for Family Services, Jenny Macklin, jointly announced the government’s plans for the card early last month.
They said the new “income management debit card” would be available “early in the new financial year.
Targetted at indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory intervention, the card is intended to help prevent parents spending their Centrelink
payments on booze, gambling and fags instead of on food for their kids.
"The debit card will make it easier for people on income management to buy essential items," said Ms Macklin.
"Customers will not be allowed to purchase alcohol, tobacco or pornography, use the debit card for gambling or to withdraw cash."
Minister Ludwig said that the card would be a big improvement on the current system.
"The previous ad-hoc system of income management had high administrative costs for government and imposed excessive red-tape on the business community," Senator Ludwig said.
"This card will mean that we can focus on helping people care for and support their children."
But whilst the government’s intentions are clear, it is the detail of the proposal that raises questions.
According to the ministers joint statement Centrelink will issue the card.
“Centrelink will issue the debit card to customers and provide support to those who may need assistance in learning how to use the card.
Centrelink will work with local businesses during the rollout and accreditation of the new system.”
Government officials indicated that whilst Centrelink will make the card available to its clients it will be a financial institution that
will actually issue the card under a contract arrangement with the government.
What sort of card it will be, however, remains something of a mystery.
The minister’s statement said that it would be a PIN-protected EFTPOS card and have the ability be re-loaded.
“The new card will be more secure than store cards and the ability to reload the debit card with new funds each payment period will provide more convenience for customers.”
However it appears that card-holders won’t be able to ‘reload’ the card themselves.
And just how Centrelink will do it remains to be clarified.
A direct-credit into the card-holders account would seem to be the most obvious way, but government officials have thus far been unable to confirm that this is how it will be done.
Indeed they seemed at pains to say that the card will not be linked to an account owned or operated by the card-holder.
Why that should be isn’t yet clear.
But what is clear is that the government will still be asking store managers and checkout operators to police Centrelink’s spending bans.
The government’s statements may have appeared to suggest its new card, because it will be accepted in EFTPOS terminals, would
feature a technical way of enforcing the spending bans, with blocks programmed into either the cards or the EFTPOS terminals.
However a closer reading of the statement shows that isn’t happening.
“The card can be used in shops with EFTPOS facilities which adhere to the Australian Government's terms and conditions.”
“Conditions include agreeing under contract not to sell alcohol, tobacco and other prohibited goods to customers using the debit card.”
“A special brand recognition symbol will be developed to help customers identify which stores and merchants have been approved to accept the debit card.”
Even so, the government clearly appears to expect that the new card will give it the power to monitor welfare recipients spending at a level of detail that
may provoke some concerns in the wider community.
The minister’s statement said that “Using the EFTPOS network will make more data available for better-targeted compliance checks aimed at detecting breaches.”
Just how EFTPOS network data can be used to monitor the spending patterns of Australians on welfare is an intriguing question that remains yet to be answered.
eCommerce Report requested further information from the office of the Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig.
They referred our inquIry to a departmental spokesman who said that:
"The IMC will not be a bank-issued card. It will be a PIN-protected card, using the EFTPOS infrastructure. It is not a debit card.
No value will be held on the card itself."
For more information go to www.humanservices.gov.au
