Federal Government’s planned expansion of the Cashless Debit Card Assignment | Custom Homework Help

SITUATION: You are a social worker working for the Australian Council of Social Services
(ACOSS), a peak advocacy organisation for social issues. You have been asked to prepare
a discussion paper for the Board of the organisation and for the wider community on the
Federal Government’s planned expansion of the Cashless Debit Card.
A cashless debit card is a form of compulsory income management that restricts how a
person can spend their income support payment. “The Cashless Debit Card (also known as
the ‘cashless welfare card’) compels income support recipients to have 80 percent of their
payments quarantined to a debit card that cannot be used for gambling or to purchase
alcohol or withdraw cash. The remaining 20 percent of a person’s payment is placed into
their normal bank account. 100 percent of lump-sum payments from Centrelink (such as
Family Tax Benefit) are also transferred to the debit card” (St Vincent De Paul Society).
The Cashless Debit Card program is currently operating in the Ceduna region, South
Australia, the Goldfields and East Kimberley regions, Western Australia and the Bundaberg
and Hervey Bay region, Queensland.
This is a different form of income management than the BasicsCard, however some
evidence, evaluations, and commentary regarding the implementation of the BasicsCard
may assist to inform your analysis of the Cashless Debit Card program.

Write a 2000 word discussion paper.

Assessment Type

Written Assignment 2000 words

Purpose

This assignment builds on assignment one, providing for the development of a more rigorous argument linking policy evidence to a social justice theme in contemporary Australia. This task is part of the work integrated learning elements of the Bachelor of Social Work program. It is a common task for social workers to raise concerns about policy issues that create disadvantage for specific groups within Australian society.

Description SITUATION: You are a social worker working for the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS), a peak advocacy organisation for social issues. You have been asked to prepare a discussion paper for the Board of the organisation and for the wider community on the Federal Government’s planned expansion of the Cashless Debit Card. The cashless debit card is a form of compulsory income management which restricts how a person can spend their income support payment. “The Cashless Debit Card (also known as the ‘cashless welfare card’) compels income support recipients to have 80 per cent of their payments quarantined to a debit card that cannot be used for gambling or to purchase alcohol or withdraw cash. The remaining 20 per cent of a person’s payment is placed into their normal bank account. 100 per cent of lump sum payments from Centrelink (such as Family Tax Benefit) are also transferred to the debit card” (St Vincent De Paul Society). The Cashless Debit Card program is currently operating in the Ceduna region, South Australia, the Goldfields and East Kimberley regions, Western Australia and the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region, Queensland. This is a different form of income management than the Basics Card, however some evidence, evaluations, and commentary regarding the implementation of the Basics Card may assist to inform your analysis of the Cashless Debit Card program.

Your scope of your discussion paper needs to include discussion of the following questions:

1. What is the Government’s rationale for this policy?

2. What is the Government trying to achieve?

3. In what ways are the impacts of this policy experienced differently by Aboriginal people compared to non-Aboriginal people?

4. How do the following three concepts inform your analysis of the policy: i. stigma ii. social inclusion iii. structural racism

5. Does ‘cashless welfare’ result in the changes that the Government is trying to achieve? What are the impacts for various stakeholders?

6. What policy changes can you suggest meeting the governments intentions in a way that is more consistent with social work values?

Assessment Criteria

1. Capacity to clearly explain the rationale and intended aims of the policy. (10%)
2. Clear demonstration of an understanding of how the policy impacts Aboriginal and nonAboriginal people in different ways. (10%)
3. Demonstrates and integrates theoretical and conceptual material covered in this course (for example, notions of stigma, social inclusion and structural racism) course to critically review policy and it’s possible impacts on recipients. (10%)
4. Capacity to develop a policy briefing paper that critically analyses policy that considers a variety of stakeholders and provides relevant and useful recommendations in line with social work values. (10%)
5. Clear and professional written expression, including attention to sentence structure, spelling and grammar, audience for the discussion and correct academic referencing (using the APA referencing convention). (10%)

References