Australian Government Cashless Debit Card Program

The Cashless Debit Card (CDC) program has ended in all locations across Australia, and all CDC participants have now exited the program or transferred to enhanced Income Management. Data summaries for the CDC program by month include the below tables:

Table 1. Number of CDC participants by original CDC location, Income Support Payment and if a participant had identified as an Indigenous Australian.

Table 2. Community panel (or body) decisions to change the restricted portion of welfare payment.

Table 3. When someone was not subject to cashless welfare arrangements: Well-being exemptions.

Table 4. When someone was not subject to cashless welfare arrangements: Exits.


Information about the CDC:

On 6 March 2023, CDC participants located in the Northern Territory, Cape York and Doomadgee region, as well as volunteers from the Ceduna, East Kimberley, Goldfields, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay regions, moved to enhanced Income Management. More information about enhanced Income Management is located on the Department of Social Services (the department) web site: https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children/programmes-services/welfare-conditionality/enhanced-income-management-overview 

The CDC program was repealed on 30 March 2023, by the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless Debit Card and Other Measures) Act 2022, which is located here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2022A00039.


Locations and commencement dates:

Location: Ceduna region, South Australia 

Commencement date: 15 March 2016

Included: Ceduna, Koonibba, Scotdesco, Yalata and Oak Valley 

Cohort: All people on a working age income support payment

Location: East Kimberley region, Western Australia

Commencement date: 26 April 2016

Included: Kununurra and Wyndham 

Cohort: All people on a working age income support payment

Location: Goldfields region, Western Australia 

Commencement date: 26 March 2018

Included: Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Coolgardie, Laverton, Leinster, Leonora, Menzies and Kookynie.

Cohort: All people on a working age income support payment

Location: Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region, Queensland

Commencement date: 21 September 2018

Included: Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Aldershot, Bargara, Elliott Heads, Woodgate, Booyal, Burrum Heads, Torbanlea, Toogoom, Howard, Childers, Burnett Heads and River Heads.

Cohort: All people aged 35 years and under who received Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance (Job seeker), Parenting Payment (Single) or Parenting Payment (Partnered).


Data Confidentialisation Policy: Table cells are suppressed where the count refers to less than five, but more than zero, people.

The method is:

•	Cells with counts between one (1) and four (4) are presented as <5.

•	Cells with a count of zero (0) are not suppressed.

•	Where suppression has been applied and it is still possible to derive the cell value from other information in the table, the total/s or the next lowest aggregate cells are suppressed and presented with ‘n.p.’ (not provided).


Data caveats: If a person was on the CDC program and moved out of a CDC area, they remained on the program and were reported against their original CDC community.


Tags: cashless debit card, cashless welfare card, cdc, dss, healthy welfare card, indue, social policy, social services, welfare
Organization: Department of Social Services