ABSTRACT

A new form of conditional welfare through income management is being trialled in Australia, dubbed the “Cashless Debit Card”. It aims to reduce gambling, alcohol and illegal drug use to address social pathologies related to crime and welfare. Routinely collected data from government were used to assess if the targeted reductions arose. Store sales data were also used to evaluate impact on food purchases. No substantive impact on measures of gambling (p = .175), and intoxicant abuse (p = .662) were found. An increased spend on healthy foods (95%CI: 12.0% to 150.0%) was observed, but decreased as a proportion of all foods (95%CI: −6.3% to −13.1%). Impacts on crime and Emergency Department presentations were not substantively found. We conclude that targeting individual choices may not be as effective as policies targeting the historical social structures that serve as antecedents to such social pathologies.

IMPLICATIONS

• The Australian Cashless Debit Card is having nominal impact on the targeted behaviours of gambling and intoxicant abuse

• While there was an increase in shopping spend, the biggest increase was in spending on less healthy discretionary foods

• Policies that focus on addressing historical social structure may prove more impactful on welfare outcomes

摘要

澳大利亚正在试用一种通过收入管理提供有条件福利的新形式，称为“无现金借记卡”。它旨在减少赌博、酒精和非法药物的使用，以解决与犯罪和福利相关的社会病态。从政府定期收集的数据被用来评估目标削减是否出现。商店销售数据也用于评估对食品采购的影响。未发现对赌博 ( p  = .175) 和滥用药物 ( p  = .662)措施有实质性影响。观察到健康食品的支出有所增加（95%CI： 12.0% 至 150.0%），但在所有食品中所占的比例有所下降（95%CI：-6.3% 至 -13.1%）。没有实质性地发现对犯罪和急诊科介绍的影响。我们的结论是，针对个人选择的政策可能不如针对作为此类社会病态前因的历史社会结构的政策有效。

影响

• 澳大利亚无现金借记卡对赌博和酗酒的目标行为产生了名义上的影响

• 虽然购物支出有所增加，但增幅最大的是不太健康的非必需食品支出

• 侧重于解决历史社会结构的政策可能对福利结果更有影响