How Many Young Aussies Live Below the Poverty Line? More Than You May Realise

Things aren't getting much better either.

It’s Anti-Poverty Week in Australia, so the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) have their released their joint Poverty In Australia 2018 Report.

And the results are not good.

As the report outlines (based on figures from 2015 – 2016), more than one in eight people (13.2 per cent) live below the poverty line in Australia. Worse is the rate of children (those under 15) below the line: more than one in six (17.3 per cent).

What does 'poverty' mean in Australia?

The poverty line in Australia is defined as $433 for a single adult a week. For a couple with two children, the poverty line is $909 a week. These numbers hopefully dispel the myth that poverty is something only experienced in third world countries. It’s happening in households right here; in a nation that, the report notes, has experienced "consistent economic growth over the last three decades, and [is] currently ranked as the second wealthiest country in the world".

All up, there are approximately 3.05 million people living in poverty; 739,000 of those are kids. The number of youths between the ages of 15 and 24 living below the line is 410,000, or 13.9 per cent.

The main cause of child poverty is the high poverty rate (32 per cent) in families with a sole parent relying on a single income.

Don’t welfare payments help?

Welfare helps, but young people get the least of it.

The report found that 53 per cent of those living below the poverty line rely on social security as their main source of income. However, those on Youth Allowance face the lowest income support payments, at $285 per week (including Rent Assistance). They’re followed by those on Newstart Allowance, at $328. It’s apparently "a policy view" that the low level of payment can be justified because those on Youth Allowance get by with support from their parents. However, it was found that many of those who were assessed were "financially independent".

We asked members about their experience with Centrelink and youth welfare in general, and found 36 per cent of young people had to wait between one and three months to get on Youth Allowance.

Are things getting better?

Perhaps the most disturbing element of the study is the fact that the poverty rate (especially for children) hasn’t really improved in sixteen years. Things may have been at their worst shortly after the Global Financial Crisis in 2007, but it’s not much better a decade later.

Foodbank also recently released their Hunger Report for 2018, in which it was revealed that more than four million Australians (18 per cent) have experienced "food insecurity" in the last year. And 22 per cent of all food insecure Australians are children. You can find out how to help at Foodbank.

Header Image: iStock.com/Xavier_S