Housing assistance in Australia 2024

Households at 30 June

For public housing, SOMIH and Indigenous community housing, households at 30 June are defined as those for which tenancies either have not ended or ended on 30 June of the reference period.

For community housing, households at 30 June were those that had not ended by 30 June of the reference period.

Low income households

For years prior to 2011–12, low income households were defined as those with an income equivalent at or below 100% of the government income support benefits at the pensioner rate.

From 2011–12, the low income cut-off uses equivalised gross income to classify a household as low income. Equivalised gross income is used as it allows comparison of the relative economic wellbeing of households of different size and composition, with the equivalised gross income being an indicator of the economic resources available to a standardised household. (If a jurisdiction is unable to supply gross household income then assessable household income will be used instead.) If a household has a negative disposable income it will have an equivalised gross income of zero.

ABS provides tables of gross equivalised income by jurisdiction and capital city / balance of state calculated from the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). Households that fall in the bottom two quintiles (that is, the bottom 40%) of equivalised gross income will be classified as low income households.

The SIH is conducted every 2 years which means that cut-offs are not updated each financial year.

Time waited for social housing allocation

The method used to calculate the amount of time waited for social housing allocation varies depending on household priority status. See the waiting list section for more information.

Suitability of dwelling

In Australia, the suitability of a household’s dwelling size is commonly measured using the Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS). Broadly, the CNOS measures suitability based on whether a dwelling has enough bedrooms for the size and composition of a household (see criteria below).

CNOS provides information on how suitable social housing dwellings were for households living in social housing on 30 June of the reference year.

Canadian National Occupancy Standard

The Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS) measure assesses the suitability of a dwelling for a household according to the following criteria:

• no more than 2 people shall share a bedroom
• parents or couples may share a bedroom
• children under 5 years, either of the same sex or opposite sex, may share a bedroom
• children under 18 years of the same sex may share a bedroom
• a child aged 5–17 should not share a bedroom with a child under 5 of the opposite sex
• single adults 18 years and over, and any unpaired children require a separate bedroom.

Based on the CNOS standard, housing utilisation will be described as the following:

• Suitable or adequate: when it meets the CNOS household bedroom requirements
• Underutilised: when it has 2 or more bedrooms surplus to the CNOS bedroom requirement for the household
• Overcrowded: when it requires at least 1 more bedroom

Source: Statistics Canada 2021

For more information on the CNOS, see AIHW Metadata Online Registry (METEOR).

Although this measure is useful for indicating overcrowding in dwellings, it does not necessarily reflect a household’s experience of overcrowding. This is because CNOS does not consider cultural differences in living and sleeping arrangements (Dockery et al. 2022). As such, its classification of overcrowding may not necessarily match the experiences of Indigenous and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse households.

Financial assistance

Financial assistance is one of the main types of housing assistance provided to low-income households in Australia. Housing costs are often one of the largest expenses for low-income households. Governments offer various forms of financial support to help people afford housing costs, such as assisting with the cost of rent and accessing home loan finance.

Within this report, information on financial assistance related to rental costs and home purchases is based on data as at the last Friday in June in the reference year (for CRA) and on 30 June of the reference year (for PRA and HPA). It provides insight into the scale and effectiveness of certain financial assistance programs.

Commonwealth Rent Assistance

Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) is a non-taxable payment, which is generally paid fortnightly to eligible recipients as part of a recipient’s primary payment rate. It is available to eligible recipients who rent in the private rental market or community housing. To be eligible, families or individuals must qualify for: an eligible social security payment; more than the base rate of Family Tax Benefit Part A; or an eligible veterans’ income support payment; and pay or be liable to pay more than a specified rent threshold.

Qualification for CRA is assessed as part of the process for claiming a social security payment and it forms part of the rate of that payment. For information about CRA eligibility, see Department of Social Services.

CRA is paid at 75 cents for every dollar above a minimum rental threshold until a maximum rate (or ceiling) is reached. The minimum threshold and maximum rates vary according to the household or family situation, including the number of children.

Certain social housing tenants are eligible for CRA, such as those living in community housing or Indigenous community housing and, in some states and territories, state owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH). CRA is not generally payable to public housing tenants as state and territory housing authorities already subsidise rent for these tenants.

COVID-19, JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance

The jobless rate in Australia increased as the COVID-19 pandemic severely affected the Australian economy (Parliamentary Library 2020a). In the months leading to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was around 5.0% (from December 2019 to March 2020). By July 2020, it peaked at 7.5% – the highest in over 20 years (ABS 2023). The economic and social impact of COVID-19 pandemic hit many Australians hard and fast. However, the rate of unemployment has declined sharply since then, falling below the pre-pandemic level to 4.7% in July 2021, and to 3.5% in February 2023 (ABS 2023).

In response to COVID-19 and the associated increase in unemployment, the Australian Government made changes to social security payments from March 2020. Broadly, these changes meant that more people were eligible for and received social security payments throughout 2020 and 2021 (Parliamentary Library 2020b).

Changes included introducing Jobseeker to replace Newstart Allowance, Sickness Allowance and Bereavement Allowance. The Coronavirus Supplement and Economic Support was also made available to recipients of the JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance (JobSeeker, Student and Apprentice), Parenting Payment (Partnered and Single), Sickness Allowance, Austudy payment, ABSTUDY living allowance, Widow Allowance, Partner Allowance, Farm Household Allowance, Special Benefit, and certain Department of Veterans Affairs student payments. Over time, the amount paid to recipients changed:

• from 27 April 2020 to 24 September 2020, recipients received $550 per fortnight
• from 25 September 2020 to 31 December 2020, recipients received $250 per fortnight
• from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021, recipients received $150 per fortnight.

This supplement ended on 31 March 2021.

From 1 April 2021 onwards, JobSeeker Payment, Austudy and Youth Allowance increased by $50 per fortnight (Treasury 2020).

From the end of April 2022 individuals who are currently in receipt of an Australian government allowance or pension (such as the age pension, disability support pension, parenting payment, carer payment, carer allowance, JobSeeker payment, youth allowance, Austudy and Abstudy living allowance) received a one-off payment of $250 to ease cost of living pressures (Services Australia 2022).

Income units

An income unit comprises a single person (with or without dependent children) or a couple (with or without dependent children) receiving a social security or family assistance payment and expected to share financial resources. Single social security recipients living together in the same household are regarded as separate income units. One member of a couple is treated as the reference person for the recipient household, based on the type of payment they receive. The order of priority is: Pensions; Allowances; Family Tax Benefit (FTB). Type of income unit information only available from 2016.

Confidentiality

To protect individuals’ privacy, all cells including any totals and subtotals have been rounded to the nearest 5, values from 1 to 7 are rounded to 5. Zero cells are actual zeros. This may result in non-additivity for some totals. Caution should be taken in re-calculating totals from rounded data, as this may compound the effects of rounding.

Rental stress

Many renters, especially those with low to moderate incomes, struggle to pay for high rents without compromising or sacrificing on other basic living costs (ABS 2022). Rental stress is about whether rental housing is affordable for these households (AHURI 2019).

Commonwealth Rent Assistance and rental stress

In Australia, rental affordability is commonly measured by the level of rental stress faced by the household. This report focusses on rental stress amongst CRA recipients, defined as a CRA income unit spending more than 30% of gross income on rent.

To provide insight into how much CRA reduced rental stress among income units receiving CRA, the proportion of income spent on rent before receiving (or excluding) CRA is compared with the proportion of income spent after receiving (or including) CRA.

Dwelling and household location

What is the Australian Statistical Geography Standard?

The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) is a classification of Australia into a social geography to reflect the location of people and communities to assist in the publication and analysis of social, economic, and demographic statistics. The ASGS categorises the regions of Australia into a hierarchy of statistical areas and consists of ABS structures and non-ABS structures (such as local government and postal areas). The ABS structures are made up of six interconnected hierarchies of regions. It is an inclusive hierarchy of geographies, where each level is included (or excluded) directly into (or from) the next. For further information on the ASGS and the structures, see the latest release of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ABS 2021).

Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) is one of the geographical areas within the main structure of the Australia Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). SA2s are medium sized areas, with populations between 3,000 and 25,000 people, they represent a community that interacts together socially and economically.

Statistical Area level 4 (SA4) refers to the geographical area of sub-state regions in the main structure of the Australia Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). SA4 broadly represents the labour markets or groups of labour markets within each state and territory, with the boundaries reflecting the separation of sub-state regions by different labour markets. For the largest regional cities, including Wollongong and Townsville, SA4s broadly reflects the labour markets of the city. For outer regional and remote areas, SA4s broadly reflects the aggregation of smaller and localised labour markets that are geographically, socially, and economically similar.

Local Government Areas (LGA) are Non ABS Structures generally representing administrative regions, they are not defined or maintained by the. All Non ABS Structures are approximated using ASGS regions. Mesh Blocks (the smallest geographic areas defined by the ABS, containing 30 to 60 dwellings) are allocated to Local Government Areas primarily based on where population is located.

Local Government Areas cover legally designated parts of a State or Territory for which incorporated local governing bodies have responsibility. There are 566 Local Government Areas covering the whole of Australia. ABS approximations of administrative boundaries do not match official legal boundaries and should only be used for statistical purposes.

Remoteness Areas (RA) are derived from the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia Plus (ARIA+), produced by the Hugo Centre for Population and Migration Studies (University of Adelaide). Remoteness Areas divide Australia into five classes of remoteness on the basis of a measure of relative access to services. The five remoteness classes are: Major cities, Inner regional, Outer regional, Remote and Very remote.

Concordances for dwelling location

Dwellings were assigned to SA4s using a postcode to SA2 correspondence file.

Dwellings were assigned to LGAs using a postcode to SA2 correspondence file.

There may be some minor inaccuracies in results.

Dwelling Remoteness area is derived from the postcode of the household using the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). Table TN.1 outlines the concordance files used for each year of housing data.

Remoteness boundaries are revised over time due to factors such as population and road network changes, further details can be found in Change in the ASGS Remoteness Classification. Due to these changes caution should be used when comparing remoteness data across time. For example, in ASGS Edition 3 (2021), Mount Gambier in South Australia has been reclassified from Inner regional to Outer regional. This has contributed to a change in the number of dwellings in Outer Regional in South Australia from around 4,500 in 2022 to 5,500 in 2023.