Seventeen services were introduced or given a funding boost in the South Australian town of Ceduna at the same time the cashless welfare card was introduced, raising questions about the success of the card.
A document obtained by the Guardian from the Department of Social Services outlines the extensive range of additional funding and services injected into Ceduna at the same time as the cashless welfare trial began.
The Greens senator Rachel Siewert has challenged how the government could draw conclusions about the success of the card, given it was difficult to tell whether reductions in drug abuse and gambling were due to the card or the extensive additional funding for support services.
The document outlines new commonwealth-funded support services introduced as part of the cashless welfare card package, showing that 17 services were introduced or given a funding boost.
These include $522,000 over two years for social and emotional wellbeing counselling, $500,000 for drug and alcohol support workers (part of the A Better Life program), and $277,630 for financial counselling.
The 12-month trial began in South Australia’s Ceduna on 15 March 2016 and in the Western Australian towns of Kununurra and Wyndham on 26 April, with welfare recipients receiving 80% of their payments on a restricted debit card. It cannot be used to withdraw cash or buy alcohol or gambling products. The remaining 20% is available in cash. In March, the trial was extended, with reviews to occur every six months. About 800 people are part of the Ceduna trial.
The one-year evaluation of the trial released last month said despite the numerous support services rolled out alongside the trial, uptake of these services had not increased and therefore a reduction in drinking and drug use could be put down to being on the card.
But the document obtained by the Guardian says the residential rehab service was a relatively new service and that “it is difficult to determine if demand is higher than previous demand”.
Other services did report an increase in uptake of services, including the Yalata Social and Emotional Wellbeing service, while the Family Violence Legal Service Aboriginal Corporation received eight new clients, more than the six additional clients projected.
Siewert said she welcomed the increase in services and funding.
“But the way the government has handled the trial process has meant evidence gathered in the trial site would be hard to attribute,” Siewert said.
“When you look at this list of new and existing services in the Ceduna community, it is clear that if this card was rolled out nationally, the government would never be able to sustain that level of support.
“In fact the government would be better off spending the money they have allocated to this whole exercise on services that support people struggling in poverty and disadvantage, and addiction.”
It follows ongoing concerns that the data used to inform the one-year evaluation was incomplete, flawed and used to draw questionable conclusions.
The human services minister, Alan Tudge, told Guardian Australia he was confident reductions in alcohol consumption, illegal drug use and gambling had been largely driven by the impact of the debit card and not by the additional services provided.
“The card is a not a panacea, but it has led to stark improvements in these communities. There are very few other initiatives that have had such impact,” he said.
The former Liberal Indigenous affairs minister Fred Chaney was part of the panel in Ceduna that considered the one-year evaluation and advised whether the trial should be extended.
He said he believed the card trial had been implemented well, with adequate consultation with the community.
“But I think that any assessment of the cashless welfare card of course needs to take into account the impact of other services, particularly other services introduced contemporaneously with it,” he said.
“My worry about the welfare card is not the way the minister went about the implementation, but I think the jury is still out on that [evaluation], and I think there are some flaws in the process. My worry is that the report will become the basis for introducing it across the board without all of the careful preparation and other support services introduced in Ceduna.”
Meanwhile, the ABC reported on Friday that despite the federal MP Melissa Price saying she had been “overwhelmed” by requests from WA communities to adopt the cashless welfare card, several councils contradicted her, saying Price had never discussed it with them.
