Joanne and Anne Lennie
14 August 2008
Dear NTER Review Board
We are writing to express our concerns about the income management system. A good friend of ours has automatically been put onto income management because she comes from Yuendumu, although she has managed her money well in the past.
Recently, she required a washing machine, and due to the system she had to buy a lower quality new one rather than her preference of attending lawn sales and second hand shops to get more value for money. She got clearance to get the washing machine on Friday 25th July 2008, which involved the following:
- going into Centrelink, getting a letter from Centrelink to Harvey Norman giving clearance to get a washing machine,
- going to Harvey Norman to choose the washing machine,
- going back to Centrelink to get the cheque, and
- then going back to Harvey Norman to get the washing machine.
She finally got thetwin tub (cost $350 + $20 delivery) washing machine which took the whole day, and then on the Saturday she needed to get money for food for the weekend but was unable to access the money due to the Darwin Centrelink office being closed for show day (Friday) and their office not having authorised her previous payment - money that she would have been able to access and was hers by right.
The Alice Springs Centrelink told her to come back on Monday, but a weekend without food and 2 $20 taxi fares and 5 hrs and 45 mins of waiting doesn't feel good when you live below the Henderson Poverty line and you're elderly. This lady has $1100 of income managed funds that she was unable to access due to the system.
This is one illustration of many that shows the difficulties in living on income management, and in this case this is a lady who was previously able to manage her money better than many people I know.
Improvements to the current system could include the following:
- Making it voluntary - then people may acknowledge they have a problem and take steps to deal with it. We have an Indigenous friend who wanted to be on income management due to her struggles with alcohol but was refused because she didn't come from one of the prescribed areas.
- Allow people more choice on where they shop - previously she would have used op shops and lawn sales to purchase things more economically
- Decrease waiting times or streamline the process so that there are not long Centrelink line waits.
- Provide alternatives for the elderly, single parents of small children and sick people to avoid having to get into, line up at and deal with Centrelink a few times a week.
Ultimately this is a racist, humiliating system where, simply because this lady (who now lives across the street from us) is Aboriginal and previously from a prescribed area, she is subject to income management, while we are able to do whatever we want with our money. No other country has this kind of regime where the Government manages people's money based on where they live and their race.
There are many more stories we could tell you about the humiliations people have suffered under this system, and would be happy to talk further with you about it.
Our contact details are listed below.
Yours sincerely,
Joanne (Larapinta) and Anna Lennie (Larapinta).