Everyone counts: uncovering patterns of Newstart Allowance

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.