TY - JOUR
T1 - Digitalisation and the Welfare State – How First Nations People Experienced Digitalised Social Security under the Cashless Debit Card
AU - BIELEFELD, Shelley
N1 - Funding Information:
This article was supported by an ARC DECRA grant: Regulation and Governance for Indigenous Welfare: Poverty Surveillance and its Alternatives (DE180100599), and by additional research funding through the Arts, Education and Law Group at Griffith University. The author gratefully acknowledges all of the First Nations people who shared their experiences with her during fieldwork. She is also deeply appreciative of the efforts of her Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander DECRA Reference Group, who provided such constructive feedback throughout the ethics review process and beyond (Dr Virginia Marshall, Dr Heron Loban, and Dr Amanda Porter). The author further thanks the reviewers and editors for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of this article.
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (grant number DE180100599), and by additional research funding through the Arts, Education and Law Group at Griffith University when the author was previously a Griffith employee.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/9
Y1 - 2024/9
N2 - Digitalisation of the welfare state has intensified in recent years, with burdens unevenly distributed between technology advocates and those receiving government income support. Putting in place processes where people needing social security must meet mandatory requirements of digital literacy and divert a significant amount of their small incomes to pay for expensive technologies such as computers, smartphones, and data plans comes at a cost. This article examines lived experiences of First Nations Cashless Debit Card (CDC) holders who experienced digitalisation of their social security payments. Under the CDC, a range of restrictions were placed on purchases, spending social security income came with stigma, technology troubles meant that income was less secure, and Indigenous peoples’ autonomy was undermined. Although the CDC has since been abolished, these issues remain relevant as a new cashless social security card, the SmartCard, has been introduced in 2023.
AB - Digitalisation of the welfare state has intensified in recent years, with burdens unevenly distributed between technology advocates and those receiving government income support. Putting in place processes where people needing social security must meet mandatory requirements of digital literacy and divert a significant amount of their small incomes to pay for expensive technologies such as computers, smartphones, and data plans comes at a cost. This article examines lived experiences of First Nations Cashless Debit Card (CDC) holders who experienced digitalisation of their social security payments. Under the CDC, a range of restrictions were placed on purchases, spending social security income came with stigma, technology troubles meant that income was less secure, and Indigenous peoples’ autonomy was undermined. Although the CDC has since been abolished, these issues remain relevant as a new cashless social security card, the SmartCard, has been introduced in 2023.
KW - Cashless Debit Card, digitalisation of the welfare state, income management, Indigenous peoples, intersectional marginalisation, stigma
KW - Cashless Debit Card
KW - income management
KW - stigma
KW - intersectional marginalisation
KW - digitalisation of the welfare state
KW - Indigenous peoples
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186547750&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/14407833241232636
DO - 10.1177/14407833241232636
M3 - Article
SN - 1440-7833
VL - 60
SP - 599
EP - 617
JO - Journal of Sociology
JF - Journal of Sociology
IS - 3
ER -
