Compulsory Income Management in the Northern Territory – evaluating its impact

Australia has been experimenting with constraining the ways in which welfare recipients can spend their income support payments, limiting their ability to access cash and purchase some products. The policy objectives include to reduce spending on alcohol, gambling, pornography and tobacco in favour of meeting ‘basic’ family needs, especially for children, to limit the scope for financial harassment, encourage pro‐social behaviours, and build financial capabilities. In the logic of the programs these outcomes are expected to be manifest at the individual, family and community levels. The policy has primarily impacted on Indigenous Australians as a result of its geographic targeting, although a recent report has recommended a more stringent version of the program be introduced universally to all welfare recipients other than the aged. The largest of these experiments is ‘New Income Management’ in the Northern Territory, which has had more than 35,000 participants since its introduction in 2010. This article reports on the key findings of the major independent evaluation of New Income Management commissioned by the Australian Government

Business · Cash · Cash transfers · Disadvantage · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics · Harassment · Income Support · Indigenous · Payment · Political science · Project commissioning · Public economics · Publishing · Scope (computer science · Welfare · Employment and Welfare Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Social Issues and Policies · Finance

• Are adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) the root cause of the Aboriginal health gap in Australia

  Open Access•Subash Thapa, Peter Gibbs et al.•BMJ Global Health•2024

  Incluir item

• A multi‐country systematic review of research on sanctions and equity in social welfare programs

  Open Access•Stephanie Holcomb, Andrea Hetling et al.•Social Policy and Administration•2022

  Incluir item

• Insights into the Implementation of Compulsory Income Management in the Northern Territory

  Open Access•Steven Roche, Natalie Taylor-Zach et al.•Australian Social Work•2026

  Incluir item

• Perspectives on the ongoing impact of compulsory income management in the Northern Territory

  Open Access•Steven Roche, Natalie Taylor‐Zach et al.•Australian Journal of Social Issues•2024

  Incluir item

• Seven years of evaluating income management ‐ what have we learnt? Placing the findings of the New Income Management in the Northern Territory evaluation in context

  Open Access•J Rob Bray•Australian Journal of Social Issues•2016

  Incluir item

• The “White Card” is grey

  Open Access•C Dalley•Australian Journal of Social Issues•2020

  Incluir item

• Social Worker Assessed Vulnerable Income Management

  Open Access•J Rob Bray, Matthew Gray et al.•Australian Journal of Social Issues•2016

  Incluir item

• Introduction for Special Issue on Income Management

  Open Access•Philip Mendes, Greg Marston et al.•Australian Journal of Social Issues•2016

  Incluir item

• The normalisation of income management in Australia

  Open Access•Melissa Lovell, Melissa E Lovell•Australian Journal of Social Issues•2016

  Incluir item

• Safety in Indigenous communities

  Simone Georg, Matthew Manning•Policy Studies•2022

  Incluir item

• We Don't Want to Live Like This

  Open Access•Robyn Martins, Christina Fernandes et al.•Qualitative Health Research•2019

  Incluir item

• Compulsory Income Management

  Philip Mendes•Australian Social Work•2012

  Incluir item