Cash payments
Box 2.1.2: Which cash payments are included?
The estimates of cash payments in this article include expenditure by the Australian
Government such as the Age Pension, Disability Support Pension and Carer Allowance.
To maintain comparability over time, the Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate are included
in the estimates of welfare services expenditure (rather than cash payments) since historically
these payments were paid to the service providers rather than directly to households.
Also to maintain comparability over time, Youth Allowance, Austudy and ABSTUDY are
not included in the estimates in this chapter (although information on recipients of these
allowances is included in Chapter 5 ‘Working-age support: assistance with employment
and training’).
Youth Allowance (student and apprentice) is available to eligible young people aged 16 to
24. It provides financial support for students to participate in full-time education, training or
apprenticeships. In 2012–13, $2.5 billion was spent on Youth Allowance for students.
Austudy provides financial assistance to full-time students and apprentices aged 25 and
over ($0.6 billion in 2012–13) and ABSTUDY provides support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Australians who are studying or undertaking a full-time apprenticeship ($0.2 billion
in 2012–13) (DEEWR 2013; DIICCSRTE 2013).
In 2012–13, the total amount spent by governments on cash payments, excluding unemployment
benefits, was estimated at $93.1 billion, up from $92.8 billion in the previous year and $77.0 billion in
2003–04 (Figure 2.1.3).
The contribution of cash payments to total welfare spending fell by around 3 percentage points
between 2003–04 (71.3%) and 2007–08 (68.2%). The Australian Government’s response to the GFC at
that time included a substantial increase in cash payments. This increased the proportion to 72.5% in
2008–09. The proportion has since fallen and in 2012–13 had returned to pre-GFC levels (68.2%).
Of the estimated $93.1 billion spent in 2012–13, $40.1 billion was for older people, $28.2 billion was
spent on families and children, and $22.8 billion on people with disability. Other cash payments
made up $2.0 billion (Figure 2.1.3). Between 2003–04 and 2012–13, spending for people with
disability grew at an average rate of 6.4% per year; spending for older people grew 2.8% on average
per year; and spending for families and children fell 0.7 % on average per year. Spending on ‘other’
cash payments fell by 3.1% on average per year (Table S2.1.3).