Queensland to scrap scheme linking school attendance to welfare payments

A FEDERAL scheme linking school attendance to welfare payments will be scrapped by the Queensland government.

A FEDERAL scheme linking school attendance to welfare payments will be scrapped by the Queensland government, which claims it has done little to reduce truancy.

The School Enrolment and Attendance Measure trial operated as a "big stick" at 30 schools at Mornington Island and Doomadgee, in far north Queensland, and Logan, south of Brisbane.

Under the scheme, parents had their welfare payments suspended or cut if they didn't send their children to school.

Since 2007, $31 million has been spent on the trial in Queensland and the Northern Territory. The most recent evaluation credited the program with a 4 per cent increase in attendance rates for the affected students in Queensland and an overall increase of 0.9 per cent.

But it noted the improvement was minor and relapse was common and there was only a 1 percentage point difference between trial schools and all public schools.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said the suspension of payments "made no impact on improving school attendance".

"Continuing the trial would further burden our schools without any financial support from the federal government," Mr Langbroek said in a statement. "This big stick approach just basically doesn't work and at the end of the day, ends up impacting on the kids."

The trial, which the federal government was seeking to extend past its June 30 cut-off, matched school enrolments and Centrelink records to track truancy.

Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin said she was surprised and disappointed and urged Premier Campbell Newman to reconsider.

"Getting children to school every day so they can get a great education should be the top priority of every government," she said.

The Australian and Queensland councils of social service and the National Welfare Rights Network yesterday welcomed the scrapping of the scheme.

ACCOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the move vindicated criticism of the program.

National Welfare Rights Network president Maree O'Halloran said the program was ineffective and expensive.

Mr Langbroek said the government was focused on other measures, including offering breakfast and other before-school programs, walking groups taking students to school, guidance officers in schools, youth support co-ordinators and school chaplains and liaising with police.