‘Ineffective’ cashless debit card scrapped

Labor has successfully scrapped the Cashless Debit Card, which will see more than 17,000 people able to exit the scheme from next week.

A cashless debit card.

Labor has successfully scrapped the Cashless Debit Card (CDC), which will see more than 17,000 people able to exit the scheme from next week and allow them to voluntarily opt into new forms of income management.

The CDC quarantined up to 80 per cent of a welfare recipient’s income to ensure it could not be used for alcohol or gambling. However, Labor said the scheme was found to be ineffective, with crime and domestic ­violence rates largely unchanged and welfare recipients still able to find workarounds.

On Wednesday, a Bill scrapping the legislation passed parliament with support from the Greens, independents and crossbench, allowing those in Ceduna, East Kimberley, Goldfields and Bundaberg-Hervey Bay to come off the card from October 4 and advise whether they want to volunteer for income management.