The way the gov has been carrying on about a progress report on the cashless welfare card trial, you'd think the trial was finished and the report final. The trial is continuing and this wasn't the final full report. That won't be released for ages yet.
Never the less it didn't stop Tudge from announcing the trial a success, despite some very worrying figures within the report. It's certainly far from a success story.
But at the time of compiling the report, the department also had police data showing a 71% increase in aggravated robbery for the area in the period from October 2015 to October 2016 compared with the same period the previous year. Non-aggravated robbery increased 200% in the same period.
“It is odd how this did not make it on to the minister’s top lines when he was spruiking the card to media,” Siewert said.
“When it comes to the cashless debit card trial progress report, we knew that the government was cherry-picking data to shine the card in the best possible light, but to ignore SA police statistics that show an increase in aggravated and non-aggravated robbery is worrisome.”
The 12-month trials of the card will conclude this year, at which point there will be an independent evaluation. Siewert questioned why the department released its six-month progress report, given it was not independent and that a proper evaluation was being conducted.
“I urge the minister to allow the trial to finish before he starts trying to pre-empt the outcome with premature ‘progress reports’,” she said. The Guardian
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