Regulation Impact Statement - Department of Social Services
On 8 October 2020, the Government introduced the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020, to transition the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) from a trial to an ongoing program in the four existing trial sites and transition around 25,000 people on Income Management (IM) in the Northern Territory and the Cape York region to the CDC.
The Cashless Debit Card aims to reduce the overall social harm caused by welfare‑fuelled alcohol, gambling and drug misuse by reducing the amount of welfare payment available as cash in a community. It is also designed as a helpful budgeting tool to support participants in managing their financial affairs and ensure they have money available to meet essential needs.
A Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was prepared and certified by the Department of Social Services, and has been assessed by the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) as adequate against Australian Government Guide to Regulatory Impact Analysis. The OBPR considered that there were shortcomings in the analysis and that the RIS would have benefitted from further depth of analysis to articulate both the costs and benefits of the options, including the likely social, economic and distributional impacts on businesses, individuals and community organisations, including current CDC participants.
The RIS estimates an average annual regulatory cost saving of $1.101 million per annum.