The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme has long been an important feature of the labour market for Indigenous Australians, particularly in remote and regional areas. The scheme involves participants working for a notional equivalent of their income support payment. The design of the scheme changed little from its creation in 1977 until 2009. CDEP organisations were allocated funding to pay the wages of CDEP participants at a level similar to income support payments, supplemented with administrative and capital support. This funding has been used as a means to provide employment, training (informal and formal), activity, enterprise support and income support to Indigenous participants. The scheme has always had a strong community employment and community development focus and, since the late 1980s, has progressively acquired a labour market program objective of increasing the job readiness of participants. This focus especially emerged during the late 1990s. (1)
CDEP participants qualify for additional income above their income support entitlement in the form of a CDEP 'participant supplement'. In 2008 this was $20.80 per fortnight. Historically the income test applied to CDEP payments has been more generous than the income test applied to income support payments (such as Parenting Payment and Newstart) and the rate at which CDEP payments were reduced as non-CDEP income increases has been lower than was the case for income support payments. (2)
