FEATURE ARTICLE
Australia’s welfare 2015 5
Box 1.1.1: Examples of payments and numbers of recipients
Some of the key Australian Government payments and numbers of recipients in 2014 included:
• Age Pension—at June 2014 provided support to around 2.4 million eligible senior Australians
• Disability Support Pension—at June 2014 provided support to around 830,000 eligible
people (aged between 16 and Age Pension age) who had a reduced capacity for work
because of impairment
• Carer Payment—at June 2014 provided support to around 244,000 people who personally
provided constant care in the home of someone with a severe disability or illness, or who
was frail aged
• Newstart Allowance—at June 2014 provided support to around 706,000 people aged 22 or
older (but under Age Pension age) who were looking for work or taking part in activities
that increased the chances of finding a job
• Youth Allowance (student and apprentice)—at June 2014 around 242,000 students aged
16–24 years, who were undertaking full-time study, received assistance
• Family Tax Benefit (FTB)—at June 2014 FTB Part A provided around 1.6 million families with
assistance with the cost of raising and educating children, and FTB Part B provided extra
assistance to around 1.4 million single-parent families and families where one parent had a
low income or was not in paid employment (DSS 2014b).
Further details about the volume and distribution of the payments can be found throughout
this publication in the relevant life-course chapters. In particular, more detail on working-age
payments is available in Chapter 5 ‘Working-age support: financial assistance for families with
children’, and Chapter 5 ‘Working-age support: assistance with employment and training’.
Up-to-date information on payments and allowances for all income support programs, including
eligibility criteria, should be sourced from the Department of Social Services (DSS) and Department
of Human Services (DHS) websites respectively: www.dss.gov.au and
www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/dhs/centrelink.
The DSS Statistical Paper Series www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/publications-articles/
research-publications/statistical-paper-series provides further statistical detail on income support
payments over time.
Welfare support services
Welfare support services are provided to vulnerable individuals and families of widely differing ages
and social and economic circumstances. As well as helping individuals and families directly, services
may also indirectly help those in need by, for example, developing community networks and
infrastructure.
The delivery arrangements are complex and largely overseen by governments—services can be
delivered or funded by the Australian Government or state or local governments, as well as by NGOs
(profit and not-for-profit). Support can be provided either independently or collaboratively, and
the relative involvement of organisations varies from program to program, and between states and
territories. Australia has a broad range of welfare services and programs, including: