Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
can access client data, has enabled the rise of tele-
phone call centers, operated by Centrelink since
the late 1980s. Like many government agencies,
Centrelink uses its on-line website to support
electronic transactions. Australians are able to
electronically alter their client data such as ad-
dress, telephone, employment level and income.
Political and fraud considerations have limited the
capacity to make new claims for benefits through
the internet. In particular, concerns about the
security of personal data transferred across the
internet blends with political expectations that
income support recipients should be eyeballed to
ensure that their claims are legitimate and that the
experience is stigmatizing and unpleasant.
While mainframe computers have increas-
ingly automated the assessment of welfare benefit
eligibility and the calculation of benefit payment
levels, in 2000 Centrelink began development of
an expert system or decision support system for
family related payments called EDGE. By directly
modeling legislation, the expert system technol-
ogy was viewed as a way in which to enhance the
accuracy and consistency of Centrelink's benefit
decision-making. However, after slow processing
times and costly ongoing maintenance, the system
was cancelled in 2004 (Henman, 2009, ch 5).
In the last decade social policies have increas-
ingly embodied a politics of neo-paternalism,
whereby those viewed as “failed citizens” are
managed in greater detail than the wider popula-
tion (Peck, 2001; Handler, 2004). An essential
aspect of implementing and administering such
policies is the use of ICTs for client compliance
and surveillance. An example of this is the intro-
duction of a magnetic strip financial debit card
in 2008, called a BasicsCard. The card is issued
to certain recipients who have a proportion of the
welfare payments forcibly quarantined as a result
of certain forms of non-compliance, and can only
spend that money on essentials (food, clothing,
health care and hygiene products). Card holders
are only able to use the card in stores that have
agreements with Centrelink. While the magnetic
strip card clearly operates as a form of surveillance,
it also eliminates the onerous paper record keep-
ing by welfare benefit recipients and shop owners
under the administrative system it replaced.
ICTs are also used for checking client com-
pliance and detecting welfare fraud, that is, for
administering welfare policy more broadly. Since
1988, Centrelink has used high-speed computer
systems to match data from Centrelink and other
external government agencies (such as taxation,
immigration, police) to identify inconsistencies
that might suggest overpayment of welfare benefits
or even welfare fraud (Cahill, 1994; Clarke, 1995).
In 2002, Centrelink trialed the use of telephone
voice recognition technologies as an additional
way in which to confirm the identity of clients and
to manage caller demand. The technology has been
subsequently installed across the organization.
Privacy is essential to Centrelink's trustworthiness
and legal responsibilities, and this technology is
a way in which to enhance automatic services
and manage service demand, while upholding
Centrelink's privacy responsibilities.
Another recent development in social policy,
to which ICTs have contributed, is the conduct
of targeted benefits and services. Instead of tra-
ditional, universal approaches to social policy,
targeted approaches seek to segment the recipient
population into different categories and provide
varied services and/or benefits to each sub-pop-
ulation (Elmer, 2004; Henman, 2004). Targeted
approaches to policy and service delivery are seen
as more effectively utilizing state resources and
providing a more personalized service delivery.
ICTs are important in managing such approaches
because targeted policies are necessarily more
complex than universal approaches, but they
also have their downsides (Henman, 2005). One
example of Centrelink's use of ICTs for imple-
menting targeted social policy is the Job Seekers
Classification Index (JSCI). In use since 1998, the
JSCI is used by Centrelink in an initial interview
with an unemployed person to rank and classify
that person into one of six groups according to
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