School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemShocks and safety nets: financial wellbeing during the COVID-19 crisis(Brotherhood of St Laurence, 2021)We use ANZ's Financial Wellbeing Indicator, which draws on multiple questions in the continuous Roy Morgan Single Source survey. The Indicator brings together three dimensions based on Kempson and colleagues’ (2017) model of financial wellbeing. These include the ability to meet everyday commitments, feeling comfortable about one’s financial situation and resilience to financial shocks. For most people, the COVID crisis led to a decline in financial wellbeing, driven by a sharp fall in the Feeling Comfortable dimension. People with low incomes, particularly those in the workforce, faced more serious declines. For example, low-income workers showed a 21% decline in ability to Meet Commitments from the pre-COVID period to the September 2020 quarter. On the other hand, COVID-19 responses made it easier for those relying on income support to buy essentials and pay bills on time: Our findings suggest that harmful impacts from the crisis were less severe where people had access to government support as well as their own savings or other resources. Real, widespread recovery will require not only adequate social security that allows resilience but also investment in full employment and social infrastructure such as affordable housing. This report is part of the Financial Lives in Uncertain Times project. The research was made possible by the generous support of ANZ through the ANZ Tony Nicholson Fellowship and the provision under licence of Roy Morgan Single Source Survey data.
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ItemEconomic security and dignity: a financial wellbeing framework(Brotherhood of St Laurence, 2020)This paper proposes a financial wellbeing framework that recognises the drivers, impacts and experience of economic insecurity and is based on the concept of economic dignity. The framework builds on BSL research into economic insecurity and financial stress. It was developed through a series of workshops with BSL staff, informed by the conceptual thinking undertaken as part of the ANZ Tony Nicholson Fellowship. It will be used to guide the development of programs that directly address financial hardship among those experiencing disadvantage, and to support advocacy for government and institutional policies that create the conditions for the financial wellbeing of all Australians.
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ItemEveryone counts: uncovering patterns of Newstart Allowance(Brotherhood of St Laurence, 2020-12-10)Our analysis of administrative social security data aimed to gain a clearer understanding of income volatility in Australia. The focus is on unemployed and underemployed Australians who received Newstart Allowance (NSA1)—a group of individuals highly exposed to the risks of financial insecurity. Our findings highlight some significant misunderstandings about the scale, scope and conditionality of Newstart Allowance receipt. While longer-term reliance on NSA is an important policy issue, short-term reliance is underestimated. An increasing share of recipients—especially women—are facing irregular payments due to suspensions. Our analysis raises questions about the extent to which the Australian social security system is fulfilling its mission to improve the lifetime wellbeing of individuals and families. The study drew on DOMINO (Data Over Multiple Individual Occurrences), a Department of Social Services database that records all interactions with Centrelink since 2001. This daily, event-based data provides an important opportunity to track individual patterns of NSA receipt over a 16-year period (2001–2016). This baseline study is part of a larger research program investigating the relationship between income volatility and social security payments. The program involves researchers from the Australian National University, the Brotherhood of St. Laurence and RMIT University.