Notes on the data: Income support

Low income, welfare-dependent families (with children), June 2023

Policy context: Families either solely or largely dependent on government for their income have the least access to income and other resources, and are more likely to have lower achievements in education, experience housing stress, and have poorer physical and mental health [1]. For children living in such families, there is an increased likelihood of limited opportunity and poorer outcomes in terms of wellbeing and learning [2].

For this indicator, to present the distribution of families on the lowest incomes, the Department of Social Services provided data for families:

with two children under 16 years of age,
with the household head not in the workforce,
with incomes under $30,596 p.a. and
in receipt of the Family Tax Benefit (A).

These families would all receive the Family Tax Benefit (A) at the maximum level. For further details see under ‘Notes’, below.

References

Barnett M. Economic disadvantage in complex family systems: expansion of family stress models. Clin Child Fam Psych Rev. 2008;11(3):145-61.
Smart D, Sanson A, Baxter J, Edwards B, Hayes A. Home-to-school transitions for financially disadvantaged children. Sydney: The Smith Family; 2008.

Notes: The level of income used for these data was based on Poverty Lines: Australia , June Quarter 2023, which contains a weekly income for a single parent with two children, excluding housing costs. Poverty Lines: Australia is a quarterly newsletter that updates the Henderson Poverty Line as defined in the 1973 Commonwealth Commission of Inquiry into Poverty. Poverty lines are presented for a range of family sizes, in order to avoid the situation of poverty. The updated Poverty Lines takes account of changes in the average income level of all Australians, reflecting the idea that poverty is relative.

Data cells with less than 5 counts were suppressed (confidentialised).

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Low income families receiving welfare payments from the Department of Human Services (Centrelink): families included are those with children under 16 years of age and with incomes under $30,596 p.a. in receipt of the Family Tax Benefit (A)

Denominator: Total families, 2021 (as data on families only available at the Census)

Detail of analysis: Per cent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on data supplied by Department of Social Services, June 2023; and Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing (families), 2022.