28th Mar 2023, 5:34 PM – Representatives Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management Reform) Bill 2023 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

The majority voted in favour of agreeing with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted against giving it a second reading, which means they can now consider it in greater detail.

What is the bill's main idea?

The bills digest supplies the following key points regarding the bill:

• Enhanced Income Management (eIM) is a hybrid welfare quarantining regime which has replaced the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) regime. The Bill proposes to also replace the existing Income Management (IM) regime with eIM. Welfare quarantining restricts the way a portion of a social security recipient’s payment can be spent.

• eIM is a hybrid regime in that it reflects the policy and legislative framework of the existing IM regime but uses an identical technology platform as the CDC regime to operate.

• The Bill proposes to:

• extend the eIM regime to include all the measures currently covered by the existing IM regime

• allow individuals currently subject to the IM regime to voluntarily move onto the eIM regime

• close the existing IM regime to new entrants and move all new individuals subject to welfare quarantining onto the eIM.

• The Bill will allow the Minister to extend eIM compulsory and voluntary measures to new locations via legislative instrument, although the Explanatory Memorandum states there is no intention to expand the ‘Long-term welfare payment’, ‘Disengaged youth’ and voluntary measures.
• The Government does not appear to have settled on a long-term plan for the future of welfare quarantining. The Government has stated its preferred option is a voluntary welfare quarantining scheme (except in Cape York) with the option to allow for communities to make referrals for compulsory welfare quarantining. A consultation process is ongoing.