The Australian Government is committed to progressively reforming the welfare and family assistance payment system. The Government believes that the first call on income support payments should be life essentials and the interests of children.
Income management works by ensuring a percentage of income support and family assistance payments cannot be spent on excluded goods, including alcohol, home brew kits, home brew concentrates, tobacco products, pornographic material and gambling goods and activities. Money that is not spent on excluded goods is available to be spent on necessities, including food, housing, utilities, clothing and medical care. There is no restriction on use of the proportion of a person’s payments which is not income managed.
Income management does not change a person’s payment entitlements; it only changes the way they receive their payments.
From 1 July 2010, a new, non-discriminatory model of income management is replacing the scheme now operating in NTER prescribed communities. Over time, and drawing on evidence from the Northern Territory, it will be progressively implemented in disadvantaged locations across Australia, to tackle the destructive, intergenerational cycle of passive welfare.