Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Compulsory Income Management

Improving food security for populations receiving welfare benefits is a stated primary purpose of the Australian income management legislation. The limited evaluation data on the various income management schemes indicates that they have not been successful in improving food security. Evaluation data on the food security impacts of the ‘place-based income management’ (PBIM) trial has been especially scarce. I completed a research project in 2017 targeting that knowledge gap with an evaluation of PBIM including empirical field research evaluating the impact of PBIM on food security for trial participants in the New South Wales (NSW) trial site of Bankstown,3 under the ‘BasicsCard’ regime. I note this is now being transitioned to ‘enhanced income management’ under the ‘SmartCard’ system;4 many of the critiques of the BasicsCard which I offer in this submission are not ameliorated by this transition to a further form of income management.