Australian government to tackle welfare abuse

When the government is paying, it would seem to have a right -- if not a duty -- to say how the money is used

Parents who blow welfare cash on drugs and gambling could see their money spent on bills via a compulsory direct debit scheme under a government crackdown. Families Minister Mal Brough today foreshadowed the extension of an existing scheme that would limit the capacity of recipients to spend benefit money on alcohol and drugs. He cited a case of one household containing nine children and 14 adults in a three bedroom Queensland housing commission home. He said he calculated that household was receiving $180,000 a year in benefits. "That's money that is supposed to be helping those children have a future," Mr Brough said on Channel 9. "The fact is that the power had been turned off. The rent hadn't been paid. Children weren't attending school on a regular basis." Mr Brough said this reinforced his view that money directed to those sort of families was ultimately paying for alcohol, drugs and gambling. "In most suburbs, in most cities, people would be able to point to such examples."

Another case related to a husband and wife with six children, five removed by state child welfare authorities because alcohol abuse was out of control and one parent was smoking $50 worth of marijuana a day. Mr Brough said their problem was overcome through voluntarily direct debiting of Centrelink payments to power and rent.

He said most Australian families used Commonwealth benefits wisely to the benefit of their children in seeking to ensure they had the best start in life. "But we shouldn't run away from the fact that there is throughout the Australian community small numbers of people who often drug dependent, gambling far too much, way beyond their means, whose children don't go to school, who don't use this money for the appropriate purposes," he said. "It is more pronounced in some remote indigenous communities but it is right throughout Australia and it knows no racial barriers, no geographical barriers."

Mr Brough said what needed to be done in the minority of cases was to ensure the money provided by the taxpayer was used to benefit children. He suggested an extension of a voluntary program used by indigenous communities on Cape York where money was directed-debited directly to pay for housing, to school tuckshops to pay for meals or to pay for electricity so children could have hot water. Mr Brough said this would ensure children's needs were met while limiting the ability of parents to pay for alcohol and drugs. "It would have to be compulsory," he said. "We have to face the reality that the people that we need to help the most are more than likely not going to work on this on a voluntary basis. It needs to be done on a case by case basis."

Source

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