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Key findings

  • 2 in 5 specialist homelessness services (SHS) clients who experienced family and domestic violence (FDV) had received the Parenting Payment Single during 2011–2021, more than double that for other (non-FDV) clients. 
  • As the majority of SHS clients who experienced FDV were female, this suggests the clients receiving the Parenting Payment Single were more commonly single mothers with young children. 
  • A higher proportion of SHS clients who experienced FDV had received income support for 7–10 years during 2011–2021, compared with other (non-FDV) clients. 
  • This article provides initial exploratory analysis of available linked data. In order to improve FDV research insights, it will be important to expand the coverage of FDV identification in linked national data. 

Introduction

Family and domestic violence (FDV) is a major national health and welfare issue. It occurs across all ages and backgrounds, but mainly affects women and children (AIHW 2024a). For children and young people experiencing FDV, the impacts can be serious and long-lasting, affecting their health, wellbeing, education, relationships and housing outcomes, which in turn affect their employment outcomes and economic security (AIHW 2023a).

Family and domestic violence causes considerable disruption to the lives of Australian families. It is the main reason that women and children leave their homes in Australia, and that people seek assistance from specialist homelessness services (SHS) (AHURI 2021; AIHW 2024b). FDV is also one of the main drivers for children being placed in out-of-home care (OOHC) (APH 2015).

People experiencing FDV can be faced with substantial costs if they decide to leave their homes, or as they transition from out-of-home care (OOHC) to independence, such as moving, legal and medical costs (AIHW 2023a, 2024c). Income support (IS) payments can provide some relief to people experiencing FDV by assisting with day-to-day costs of living.

Box 1: Income support and out-of-home care in Australia

Income support

Australia’s social security system administered by Services Australia aims to support people who cannot, or cannot fully, support themselves, by providing targeted payments and assistance. This is referred to as an income support payment. These payments help with the everyday costs of living, with the type of payment often reflecting life circumstances at the time of receipt (AIHW 2023b). 

Please refer to Income and income support and Financial support and workplace responses for more information. 

Out-of-home care 

OOHC is overnight care for children aged under 18 who are unable to live with their families due to child safety concerns. This includes placements approved by the department responsible for child protection for which there is ongoing case management and financial payment (including where a financial payment has been offered but declined by the carer). OOHC includes legal (court-ordered) and voluntary placements, as well as placements made for the purpose of providing respite for parents and/or carers (AIHW 2022). 

Please refer to Child protection and Child protection Australia 2021–22 for more information on OOHC. 

Using linked data, this article examines the use of income support and out-of-home care among specialist homelessness services clients experiencing family and domestic violence. It provides further analysis of exploratory data from the 2023 report Specialist homelessness service usage and receipt of income support for people transitioning from out-of-home care. 

Defining the family and domestic violence cohort

The linked data asset used for the 2023 report was designed with a focus on people transitioning from OOHC (further details in Technical notes). The recent addition of SHS data to the asset enabled initial exploratory analysis about people experiencing FDV to be undertaken for selected cohorts and characteristics.

Using the available linked data, FDV and non-FDV cohorts were identified among those born between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 2001, and within these cohorts, income support (IS) and OOHC status were explored.

In this report:

  • FDV cohort refers to SHS clients who were born between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 2001, and in the observation period (1 July 2011 to 30 June 2021) were recorded as experiencing FDV, that is, they:
    • needed, were provided with, or were referred to a FDV service, and/or
    • had at least one support period where the main reason for seeking support was FDV. 
  • Non-FDV cohort refers to SHS clients who were born between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 2001, and in the 2011–2021 observation period were not recorded as experiencing FDV. 
  • IS status and OOHC status are presented as subsets of the FDV and non-FDV cohorts (these cohorts were aged 11–30 in the 2011–2021 observation period); they indicate whether someone has received each service type, noting this may not have occurred at the same time: 
    • IS status is based on receipt of any IS payments by people aged 16–30 in the 2011–2021 observation period (IS is only available to those younger than age 16 in selected circumstances).
    • OOHC status is based on having ever been in OOHC in the period 1990–91 to 2018–19 (this provides full placement history to age 18). 

Box 2 provides an overview of key data limitations for this article. For further information on methodology and data linkage, please refer to Technical notes.

Information on the use of SHS among the FDV and non-FDV cohorts is provided in the 2023 report.

Box 2: Key data limitations

Many people who experience FDV do not seek support from any services (ABS 2023). Of those who do seek support, SHS is just one type of service that people may engage with, either by itself or in combination with other services. For this article, the SHS Collection was the only source in the linked data asset that included data which enabled FDV experience to be identified. As such, the FDV cohort may be an underestimate (that is, it may not capture all FDV experiences for all people), and some of the people in the non-FDV cohorts may actually have experienced FDV but not disclosed their experience to SHS agency workers.

The data available for this article provides an initial snapshot of SHS clients’ contact with IS and OOHC, but does not provide information on the specific timing and sequencing of that contact. For example, the ‘Both IS and OOHC’ sub-cohort captures those clients in contact with IS and OOHC at some point during the relevant periods (see above), but this contact may not have occurred at the same time.  

Interactions with income support and out-of-home care

Table 1 presents selected characteristics of the FDV and non-FDV cohorts, which shows:

  • the FDV cohort was predominantly female – 4 in 5 (80%) of the FDV cohort were female, compared with 49% for the non-FDV cohort. This pattern is consistent with other reporting on SHS clients experiencing FDV (AIHW 2024b).
  • similar proportions had received income support – Around 4 in 5 of the FDV cohort (81%) and the non-FDV cohort (78%) had received IS during the 10-year observation period. This is understandable given that all SHS clients are either homeless or at risk of homelessness (AIHW 2024b).
  • similar proportions had been in OOHC – Over 1 in 11 (9.3%) of the FDV cohort and 1 in 14 (7.1%) the non-FDV cohort had been in OOHC. This may reflect that only one data source was used to identify FDV experience (the SHS Collection); many children in OOHC have experienced FDV (APH 2015), but specific information on FDV was not available from the OOHC data in the linked data asset (see Technical notes).    
Table 1: FDV and non-FDV cohorts, by selected characteristics, 2011–2021

 

FDV cohort:
number		FDV cohort:
per cent		Non-FDV cohort:
number		Non-FDV cohort:
per cent

Sex

 

 

 

 

Female

77,112

80%

79,955

49%

Male

19,072

20%

83,796

51%

Age at first SHS support period(a)

 

 

 

 

11–15 years

16,346

17%

22,537

14%

16–17 years

18,668 

19%

33,042 

20%

18–21 years

34,278

36%

66,381

41%

22–25 years

19,139 

20%

30,768 

19%

26–30 years

7,753

8.1%

11,023

6.7%

IS and OOHC status(b)

 

 

 

 

Both IS and OOHC

8,734

9.1%

11,376

6.9%

IS only

68,992

72%

116,834

71%

OOHC only

181

0.2%

275

0.2%

Neither IS or OOHC

18,277

19%

35,266

22%

OOHC total(c)

8,915

9.3%

11,651

7.1%

IS total(c)

77,726

81%

128,210

78%

Total cohort

96,184

100%

163,751

100%

Notes

  1. Age at commencement of first SHS support period during the 2011–2021 observation period. In a small number of cases, the SHS support period may have commenced before the observation period began on 1 July 2011; as such, the ‘11–15 years’ category may include some clients who were younger than 11 when the support period commenced.
  2. See ‘Defining the family and domestic violence cohort’ section above for definitions of FDV cohort, Non-FDV cohort, IS status and OOHC status.
  3. ‘OOHC total’ is the sum of ‘Both IS and OOHC’ and ’OOHC only’. ‘IS total’ is the sum of ‘Both IS and OOHC’ and ‘IS only’.

Source: AIHW 2023a

Figures 1 and 2 present selected characteristics of the FDV and non-FDV cohorts, disaggregated by sub-cohorts based on IS and OOHC status (for example, ‘both IS and OOHC’, ‘OOHC only and ‘IS total’; see Table 1 for context).

Compared with the non-FDV cohort who received IS, it was more common for the FDV cohort who received IS to (Figure 1):

  • receive income support for a longer duration – Among the FDV ‘IS total’ cohort, almost 2 in 5 (39%) received IS for 7–10 years during the 10-year observation period, compared with 3 in 10 (31%) of the non-FDV ‘IS total’ cohort.
  • receive the Parenting Payment Single – Among the FDV ‘IS total’ cohort, over 2 in 5 (43%) had ever received the Parenting Payment Single during the 10-year observation period, compared with 1 in 5 (21%) of the non-FDV ‘IS total’ cohort. As most of the FDV cohort were female (80%, see Table 1), this suggests these clients were more commonly single mothers with young children.

Within the FDV cohort, compared with those who experienced IS only, it was more common for those who experienced both IS and OOHC to (Figure 1):

  • receive income support for a longer duration – Receiving IS for 7–10 years during the 10-year observation period was more common among the FDV ‘both IS and OOHC’ cohort (47%), compared with the FDV ‘IS only’ cohort (38%). This pattern was not found among the respective non-FDV cohorts. 
  • receive an unemployment payment – Having ever received an unemployment payment during the 10-year observation period was more common among the FDV ‘both IS and OOHC’ cohort (77%), compared with the FDV ‘IS only’ cohort (69%). This pattern was not found among the respective non-FDV cohorts. 
  • receive a Disability Support Pension – Having ever received a Disability Support Pension during the 10-year observation period was more common among the FDV ‘both IS and OOHC’ cohort (14%), compared with the FDV ‘IS only’ cohort (7.1%). A similar pattern was found among the non-FDV cohorts (16% and 8.6%, respectively). 

Figure 1: FDV and non-FDV cohorts who received IS, by IS characteristics, 2011–2021 

The figure presents length of support, and payment type first received and ever received among the FDV and non-FDV cohorts who received IS, disaggregated by sub-cohorts based on IS and OOHC status.

Within the FDV cohort, compared with those who experienced OOHC only, it was more common for those who experienced both IS and OOHC to (Figure 2):

  • have a higher number of OOHC placements – Experiencing 6 or more placements during their time in OOHC was more common among the FDV ‘both IS and OOHC’ cohort (29%), compared with the FDV ‘OOHC only’ cohort (16%). This pattern was not found among the respective non-FDV cohorts. 
  • exit OOHC at a later age – Exiting OOHC at age 17 or older was more common among the FDV ‘both IS and OOHC’ cohort (35%), compared with the FDV ‘OOHC only’ cohort (24%). This pattern was not found among the respective non-FDV cohorts. 

Figure 2: FDV and non-FDV cohorts who had been in OOHC, by OOHC characteristics, 2011–2021 

The figure presents primary placement type, number of placements and age at final exit among the FDV and non-FDV cohorts who had been in OOHC, disaggregated by sub-cohorts based on IS and OOHC status.

Future considerations

There is a considerable knowledge gap in regard to understanding the service interactions and pathways of people experiencing FDV. This knowledge gap is underpinned by limited and fragmented national data that enables identification of people experiencing or at risk of FDV. Data linkage can be used to join up multiple data sources to improve the coverage of FDV identification for statistical and research purposes.

In order to improve FDV research insights, it is important to expand the FDV cohort identifiable in national data – for example, the AIHW, with funding from the Department of Social Services, is exploring the linkage of data on child protection services (broader than OOHC), specialist homelessness services, and health services and outcomes data (the National Health Data Hub) as a first step. Further, the identification of FDV crisis payments in the income support data available for research would be valuable.  

The initial findings in this article may provide a useful foundation for more detailed future analysis on the timing and sequencing of client contact with services.

Data details

Technical notes

This article provides further analysis of exploratory data from the 2023 report Specialist homelessness service usage and receipt of income support for people transitioning from out-of-home care. The linked data asset used for the 2023 report (and previous related reports) was designed with a focus on people transitioning from OOHC, not people experiencing FDV. However, the recent addition of SHS data to the asset enabled exploratory analysis about people experiencing FDV to be undertaken for selected cohorts and characteristics. As the OOHC data available in the asset were limited to those born between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 2001, this was the birth range included in the FDV and non-FDV cohorts used for analysis.

The linked data asset included:

  • OOHC data from all state and territory government departments responsible for child protection (except Queensland), which included young people born between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 2001 who had been in OOHC. This time period was chosen to ensure that the OOHC study population included only those with a full placement history (that is, reached the age of 18) at the time the OOHC data was provided to the AIHW in 2019. 
  • Centrelink data from the Department of Social Services (DSS) data asset Data Over Multiple Individual Occurrences (DOMINO) on income support and other payment receipt between 2007 and 2021. 
  • The Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) comprises data from homelessness agencies funded under the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. Data for SHS clients born between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 2012 was added to the asset in 2022. 

It should be noted that there were different follow up periods depending on the child’s year of birth. People born in the earlier birth cohorts (1990–91) are observed up to the age of 30 in 2021, whereas those born in later birth cohorts (2000–01) will only be observed up to the age of 20 in 2021. This means that certain ages are not observed in particular financial years. For example, there is no one from the OOHC study population aged 16–19 in 2021, as the youngest birth cohort included is 2000–01 (who turn 20 in 2021).

Due to the data available for this article, the scope of SHS clients experiencing FDV is narrower than that used in other AIHW reporting. For example, the SHS annual report also includes the referral source and all reasons (not just the main reason) to identify those with experiences of family and domestic violence – these items were not available in the linked data asset. It is also worth noting that the counts in this article may include both victims and perpetrators of FDV, as the data item to disaggregate these was not available in the linked data asset. However, as reported elsewhere by the AIHW, among clients needing assistance for family and domestic violence, the vast majority require victim support services as opposed to perpetrator support services (AIHW 2024b).

Where a finding is referred to as 'more common' in this article, there was a difference of 7.0 or more percentage points between comparison groups; the difference was calculated based on unrounded percentages (i.e. the percentages had more than one decimal place).

For more information on the data sources, linkage methods and factors influencing income support receipt, please refer to the Appendix in Specialist homelessness service usage and receipt of income support for people transitioning from out-of-home care.

Data