Notes on the data: Income support

Children in low income, welfare-dependent families, June 2023

Policy context: Children living in families either solely or largely dependent on government for their income have the least access to financial and other resources, and are more likely to have lower achievements in education and poorer health outcomes than their more advantaged peers [1]. They also face an increased likelihood of limited opportunity and poorer outcomes in terms of wellbeing and learning [2]. In particular, extreme stressful events, such as homelessness, victimisation or abuse, can have long-term effects on children’s outcomes [1].

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).

The families these children are living in would all receive the Family Tax Benefit (A) at the maximum level. For further details see under ‘Notes’, below.

References

Jones E, Gutman L, Platt L. Family stressors and children's outcomes. (Report for UK Department for Education). London, UK: Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre; 2013.
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 2022 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).

A very small number of Local Government Areas (LGAs) have proportions in excess of 100%: these are clearly not accurate. The reason for this is not clear, although it may be the result of the address of the beneficiary not being allocated to the correct small geographical area by the correspondence files available; it may also reflect inaccuracies in the denominator (the population), as population estimates at the small area level for age groups can be unreliable, in particular for areas with proportionately high numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (as is the case for this income support payment). It also indicates that it is possible that percentages of less than 100% may also be overstated.

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

Denominator: All children under 16 years of age at 30 June 2022 (population data at June 2023 not available at time of publication)

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, 2022.