No Jab No Pay: 500 children a day catch up on vaccinations
More than 500 children a day have been vaccinated since tough new rules were introduced targeting family tax benefit payments. The changes were first campaigned for by The Sunday Telegraph more than six years ago. INTERACTIVE: SEARCH IMMUNISATION RATES IN YOUR AREA
NSW
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Tough new No Jab No Pay rules introduced a year ago has led to a surge of 500 children a day catching up on their vaccinations.
Government figures obtained by the Sunday Telegraph show that 174,000 children across the country have been immunised since vaccination was linked to family benefits payments.
The number of fully vaccinated five year olds has hit 94.85 per cent per, the highest level ever.
No Jab, No Pay, first introduced into law in 2016 after a Sunday Telegraph campaign, strips families who have not vaccinated their children of the end of year Family Tax Benefit supplement, worth up to $766.50 per child.
Changes introduced on July 1, 2018, withheld a family’s fortnightly Family Tax Benefit Part A payment, which was reduced by around $29 a fortnight for every child who did not meet the immunisation requirements.
The immunisation requirements apply to all Family Tax Benefits, including teenagers, in accordance with the National Immunisation Schedule where requirements start from birth.
Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said that in the past financial year families of about 350,000 children were notified that they did not meet the immunisation requirements for Family Tax Benefit Part A.
The families were each given a 63-day grace period to get their children up to date with vaccinations or face the suspension of their fortnightly payments.
“These results show that in tightening the rules around the No Jab No Pay initiative we created a more immediate link between the immunisation schedule and payment reductions which has acted as a powerful driver for families to make sure their children’s vaccinations are fully up to date,” Ms Ruston said.
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Catherine Hughes, who lost her month old son Riley to whooping cough in 2015 and has campaigned for vaccination ever since, said the figures showed NO Jab No Pay was working despite some criticism from academics.
“That’s impressive, the policy has promoted more than half to get vaccinated, that’s the biggest improvement in vaccination uptake we have seen in Australia. I can’t think of any other anything else that has raised rates so quickly,” Mrs Hughes said.
“The more kids being vaccinated the better, it’s a really good thing,” she said.
A state by state breakdown shows more than 50,000 children have lined up for vaccinations in NSW, more than 39,000 in Queensland, about 42,000 children in Victoria, 20,000 in Western Australia and more than 13,000 in South Australia.
Ms Ruston said the figures also showed that about 44,000 families were no longer receiving FTB instalments because their children had finished their final year of school or the parents’ income may have reached the limit for receiving the payment.
FTB payments are restored as soon as a child is fully immunised, but there is no back pay for periods the child was not fully immunised.
Since the introduction of No Jab No Play/Pay initiatives championed by The Sunday Telegraph and implemented by both state and federal governments, immunisation rates have risen year on year.
The proportion of Australian children fully vaccinated at 12 months in 2012 was just 91.7 per cent.