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Housing consumption patterns and earnings behaviour of income support recipients over time: analysis of FaCS Longitudinal Data Set (1 per cent sample)

Summary

Project Number: 20257
Research Theme: Economics_Modelling
Project Leader: Seelig, Tim
Funding Year: 2004
Research Centre: Queensland

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 103: What are the housing tenure pathways of income support recipients over time?

Most income support recipients have high levels of tenure stability. Less than 20 per cent experience multiple and complex tenure transitions. Changes in tenure over time are driven by a range of factors, with change of income level being only a Minor or secondary consideration in many cases.

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Description

This research is centrally concerned with the interaction of the income support and public housing systems in shaping movements in and out of the labour-force.

Increased labour-force participation among income support recipients is a key objective of Commonwealth social policy and welfare reform (welfare to work), and is also an important consideration to the States and Territories. Governments need to fully understand the most effective ways in which housing assistance can be delivered, and in particular how different forms of assistance could be designed and targeted at specific population groups. Gaining insights into how forms of assistance appear to influence behaviour in the areas of earnings, housing consumption, location (or alternatively how housing assistance usage or housing consumption is shaped by earnings or other factors) is also crucial to this. Public housing reform remains a key policy concern in Commonwealth-State relations, and the 2003 CSHA provides the Commonwealth with the capacity to levy a 5 per cent funding penalty if workforce disincentives (perceived to be connected to rent-setting formulae) are not removed from public housing.

All this adds up to significant importance being attached to better understanding the interaction of housing consumption patterns and housing assistance measures, such as the provision of public housing and Rent Assistance to private renters, with the earnings capacity and behaviour of income support recipients. Analysis of longitudinal income support data provides an excellent opportunity to examine such interactions at several different levels.

More Information

Final Report: No. 118: Housing consumption patterns and earnings behaviour of income support recipients over time
1.12 MB PDF Document

Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 103: What are the housing tenure pathways of income support recipients over time?
197 KB PDF Document

Positioning Paper: No. 085: Housing consumption patterns & earnings behaviour of income support recipients over time
1.8 MB PDF Document