HOW I KICKED THE CASHLESS CARD
Kalgoorlie Miner
Sunday, 7 April 2019
Sarah Betts has cut up the Indue cashless debit card she received, but never activated, after finally receiving a letter that she is exempt from it.
After sticking to her guns for five months and only receiving 20 per cent of her entitled welfare payment, Sarah Betts is finally living a life free of the cashless debit card.
In November, the mother-of-two separated from her husband and found herself needing financial assistance to get her through a rough patch.
As the owner of a face painting and plaster craft business, she had a small amount of her own money, but reached out for welfare to fill the gaps.
Diagnosed with depression, anxiety and psoriatic arthritis many years ago, and having just gained her independence, Ms Betts said the idea of being forced onto a “financially abusive” card amplified her anxiety.
She described feeling violated by the fact her private information had been given to a third party without her consent.
“When I got the letter saying I was being put on the card I felt like someone had taken the only thing I had earned — my independence — off me,” she said.
“All this card has done is create shame, fear and degradation.”
So she refused to activate the card and began searching for ways to obtain an exemption.
On Tuesday, after being told five days earlier her exemption was refused because she had not activated the card, she was finally granted it.
The card quarantines 80 per cent of a person’s welfare payments to prevent the money being spent on alcohol or gambling.
The next night, the Goldfields cashless card trial was extended to June 30 next year when the Senate passed the enabling legislation, and an amendment was added to allow people to get off the card in certain circumstances.
Ms Betts said she hoped her story would remind people they were not helpless against the system.
“The absence of choice does not negate consent in law,” she said.
“People are being forced onto this card unwillingly and they have the right to question it, they have a choice to say it is not right and fight to change the system.”
While she remains against the card, Ms Betts said she was glad the amendment had been introduced, but warned of a long and painful fight.
“Getting the exemption for me was convoluted and horrific,” she said.
“It required repeating over and over again what I suffer from and everything that I had been through and why the card would hurt my wellbeing.”
She said she felt she was being treated as though she were a criminal or drug addict who could not be trusted with her own money.
“Instead of being told, ‘OK we will help you through this’, I was met with disgust and control ... and was given a card that identified me as someone on welfare, which just makes you a target for abuse,” she said.
“I just needed a hand and I didn’t understand why they were making my life harder and making it even more difficult for me to sort my finances through the break-up.”
While the card itself was an issue, Ms Betts said the mentality of society towards people on welfare also needed to change.
She said there was a strong misconception that welfare recipients were all “dole-budging drug addicts and alcoholics”, and she had had enough of being shamed.
“I don’t want to be on welfare but I have no choice, I am a victim of circumstance. My marriage failed and I had nowhere else to go but Centrelink because I work on a seasonal income with a small one under school age,” she said.
“People have forgotten that welfare is there for people who just need a helping hand. Not everyone is a criminal or drug addict and we shouldn’t be made to feel that way.
“Yes some people have those problems, but you can’t punish the many for the needs of the few.
“And those who have that mentality really need to understand that all it could take is one wrong move, and you could end up in a situation where you need that helping hand as well.”
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