The INDUE card is very different from a bankcard. It operates as a credit card in the sense that the funds are not the property of the recipient, so a recipient has no claim to interest accrued on funds over time. In the case of a person becoming ill and spending a period of time in hospital (for mental health patients this can amount to regular periods of many months) this becomes a significant revenue stream for the company INDUE who have ownership of accrued interest. In other words INDUE & Eftpos get to keep your small change, the stuff that used to go in the jar above the fridge that comes in handy to pay the winter electricity bill with.
Other problems that present with cashless welfare in a society where the welfare payments don’t lift people over the poverty line is that mainstream shopping is just to expensive, flexible rental arrangements will be impossible to handle, share housing and split bills will be impossible to manage, emergency situations requiring cash will be impossible to manage. People will not be able to “chip in” or help each other financially from fortnight to fortnight. Another very dubious fact around cashless welfare is that the company managing it are not a bank and will not provide any of the privacy and security measures that banks provide. Our data will be open to organisations who collect data to profile and target consumers. The Government cannot guarantee our privacy because INDUE are not a Government organisation.
The Cashless welfare card, termed by Government as the Healthy Welfare Card, will mean the end of consumer anonymity for welfare recipients while the rest of society is free to engage in whatever transactions they choose. By removing choice and variety from welfare recipients the card will ensure the unemployed and underemployed are even more stigmatised than we already are.
The INDUE cashless welfare card will mean that all transactions will have to be made through an eftpose machine, if a business / trader does not rent an eftpos machine then no transaction can be made. This cuts out a wide variety of cheaper alternatives to mainstream shopping that welfare recipients rely on including many second hand and opportunity shops, farmers markets and trash and treasures, garage sales, all second-hand goods trading between friends and aquaintences, private owner second hand vehicals and parts, side of the road food and produce stores, regional swimming pools and many youth orientated activities, sausage sizzles, arts markets, small traders, schools and neighbourhood fund raising initiatives, small scale school excursions, lunch orders and raffels. Eftpos transactions and inter-banking (transfers and payment of invoices) will mean that mortguage payments and other payments can become more expensive with extra fees being required from receiving banks and organisations as well as transaction charges being applied. Eptpos is a company which makes money from transactions and card, it is wholly owned by its 18 Members and all profits from cashless welfare transactions will go to these companies:
- Adyen
- Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited
- Australian Settlements Limited
- Bank of Queensland Limited
- Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited
- Citigroup Pty Limited
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- Coles Group Limited
- Cuscal Limited
- First Data Network Australia Limited
- Indue Limited
- ING DIRECT
- National Australia Bank Limited
- PayPal Australia
- Suncorp Bank
- Tyro Payments
- Westpac Banking Corporation
- Woolworths Limited