When a Launceston man moved to Kalgoorlie, he found himself placed on the Indue cashless welfare card program.
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The region was part of the government's trial for the scheme, and being on Newstart at the time, it became part of his life.
Then when he moved back to Tasmania last year, the card came with him. He could not leave the scheme.
The man - who has chosen to remain anonymous - has unique insight into life on the cashless welfare card in Launceston, where 80 per cent of his Youth Allowance is quarantined to prevent alcohol and gambling spending.
Of that, $200 a fortnight can be used for rent. To add to that he needs to apply for a housing increase limit, a process he described as "a pain".
"Every six months they ask you to review your rent amount, you have to make multiple phone calls to sort it out - just to be able to pay rent," he said.
"Then when you use the Indue app and try to direct debit, it will just be blanked out so you can't transfer money to the landlord or real estate. Then it's another conversation on the Indue line to get it fixed. It happens a lot."
The man, in his 20s, described this as the most inconvenient part of the scheme, as well as making the process of dealing with Centrelink more difficult.
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"Sometimes if you're in a shop, you might feel a bit embarrassed if people recognise it - 'you're on welfare' - and you can't use the tap function, you've got to insert it into the machine," he said.
He can't use the card for purchases from anywhere that sells alcohol, encountering this when trying to buy food at the Pizza Pub. He can still buy cigarettes, though.
The remaining 20 per cent of his payment can be used as he pleases, but when on Newstart or Youth Allowance, this can be just over $100 a fortnight. He can also transfer $200 per month from the card into his personal account.
When living in Kalgoorlie, he agreed that measures needed to be considered to address antisocial behaviour.
But he believed just using the Indue card would not work.
MORE ON THE CASHLESS WELFARE CARD DEBATE:
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- Tasmanian Liberal senator Wendy Askew backs in CDC expansion as chair of committee
- Senator Jacqui Lambie unlikely to support CDC trial extension
- Bridget Archer chooses to abstain from CDC vote, has full support of Tasmanian Liberals
- Archer wants focus on payday lenders rather than cashless welfare card
"I don't think it really fixes the problem that it sets out to solve," he said.
"I know they want to cut down on alcohol and gambling spending, but there's a bigger problem there that needs to be solved, other than restricting people's ability to make purchases."
Among those was the fear of turning 26 and having access to Headspace end for mental health support.
He said if the government wanted to quarantine people's income, it had to drastically increase investment in support services.
A vote to continue trial sites in the Goldfields, East Kimberley, Ceduna and Bundaberg, and voluntarily introduce it to the Northern Territory, passed Parliament in the final sitting week after amendments prevent it from becoming permanent.
It drew criticism, although there were yet to be plans to bring it to Tasmania.
The Launceston man said he understood the fear.
"I'm quite a tolerant and relaxed person in most things, so it doesn't affect me as much as it would other people. But I would definitely prefer to be off of it, and just be the same as everyone else in Tasmania," he said.
"The inconvenience isn't justified."
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