Centrelink clients will be able to access urgent cash advances more easily - but less often - under changes aimed in part at reducing aggression.
Tens of thousands of welfare recipients are requesting multiple urgent payments within weeks of each other, triggering fears the emergency measure is plunging individuals deeper into a cycle of financial stress.
Analysis of aggression against Centrelink staff shows 21 per cent of incidents are linked to urgent payments, with 80 per cent of these occurring immediately after claims are rejected.
The federal government says it is streamlining the application process to make it faster and easier to access urgent cash.
But at the same time, it is capping the number of times a person can receive urgent payments at two per year, save for exceptional circumstances.
Those who request more than two urgent payments will be shifted from fortnightly to weekly welfare payments and have Centrelink deductions set up to manage bills and expenses.
Social workers will also step in to make referrals to community groups, accommodation assistance and financial counselling where necessary.
The human services department dolled out about 400,000 urgent payments to 210,000 individuals in the year to January 2017.
Roughly 81,000 welfare recipients ask for more than one urgent payment each year, almost two-thirds of whom lodge their second requests within 30 days of the first.
Some 38,000 people are requesting a second urgent payment within 15 days of earlier attempts.
Most urgent payments are requested by people aged between 30 and 34, more than half of whom are male and 90 per cent of whom are single.
