We have been dumping on poor/welfare/disabled people for so long, that this Cashless Welfare Card system is almost just background noise at this point.

So let me posit you all a hypothetical timeline from my DayJob perspective.

Here is our point of departures:
-The liberal (conservative) govt doesn't do income support (JobKeeper)
-2 key clients go under or terminate contracts with us.

That's it, that's all I need to change for this hypothetical.

At this point we are laying off staff. (Not just the partial stand downs we had to do).

So meet Charles*. Charles loses his job, and goes onto Jobseeker (dole/unemployment payment). It is roughly 1/4 of his previous salary.

Very quickly he falls behind on bills

*Not real name

Over the past 8 months of this, he potentially has had his house foreclosed on, he has had to move to accommodation with family, so he, his wife and two kids now share a single room. Kids can still go to school, but replacements for uniforms, books, or any sort of tech purchase./

./ like these "mandatory" ipads or laptops dont happen.

His kids now have less educational opportunity than their peers.

The stress takes its toll on Charles. But he gamely looks for work in the middle of pandemic where everyone is battening down the hatches.

There were 300 applicants to the last role he applied for.

He didn't get the job.

He is looking at supermarket shelf stacking just to increase salary from pitiful JobSeeker levels. It will be well less than half of what he made before.

To get a job, he needs to maintain a professional appearance. Haircuts, shirt, ties, business jackets. The cost for even a cheap version of all of these is over an entire weeks JobSeeker amount. He skips meals. He keeps searching for work.

He isn't getting lucky with a pandemic recession job market. Every pitiful payment of JobSeeker means a decision on buying food for his kids, and trying to maintain his attempts at a job that he literally could do a few months ago, and now cant.

He could try and do a course to remain professionally up to date, but it costs $1500, or basically nearly a months worth of JobSeeker for himself.

Being out of work for months starts to make it harder to obtain work.

The cycle spirals downward. Financial pressures -> Stress -> Inability to present well at job interviews.

He gets increasingly professionally out of date as he cant afford to professionally networking to maintain contacts or do updated professional development coursework.

And now.

After all of this.

He doesn't get cash now.

He gets a special branded card.

It has a stigma attached.

Store cashiers know what that card means.

For him it is another punch to shreds of his dignity that now barely resembles who he thought he was.

Now he has to give up hopes of getting back to his former career. Barring a miracle favour from a friend, the bar to entry is now too high.

The Job Agency dude has advised maybe he look at retraining or a different industry. Maybe relocate to another location, somewhere regional

He cant spend the card on things that would allow him to re-establish himself. He cant choose his own life.

He is conformed/encouraged by the government to literally retrain to a service job.

He needs to know his place. He needs to "repay his debt to taxpayers".

Welcome to the underclass.