cashless debit card – Michmutters
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Australia

Cashless debit cards linked to buy now, pay later services raise concerns ahead of end of scheme

The number of people using buy now, pay later services connected to their cashless debit card (CDC) has complicated the federal government’s plan to abolish the program.

During the election campaign, Labor promised to end the scheme, which quarantines 80 per cent of a person’s welfare payments onto a card that cannot be used for alcohol, gambling or cash withdrawals.

More than 17,000 welfare recipients in Western Australia’s Goldfields and East Kimberley regions, Ceduna in South Australia, as well as Bundaberg and Hervey Bay in Queensland, are on the card.

A significant number of them have linked their card to buy now, pay later services like Afterpay, which allows a person to buy products up front but pay them off in installations.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said it means transitioning people off the card could take some time.

“A number of deductions that participants have connected to their card means that you can’t just close the card overnight,” she said.

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