The DSS Payment Demographic data set is made up of:

Selected DSS payment data by

• Geography: state/territory, electorate, postcode, LGA and SA2 (for 2015 onwards)

• Demographic: age, sex and Indigenous/non-Indigenous

• Duration on Payment (Working Age & Pensions)

• Duration on Income Support (Working Age, Carer payment & Disability Support Pension)

• Rate (Working Age & Pensions)

• Earnings (Working Age & Pensions)

• Age Pension assets data

• JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) Principal Carers

• Activity Tested Recipients by Partial Capacity to Work (NSA,PPS & YAO)

• Exits within 3, 6 and 12 months (Newstart Allowance/JobSeeker Payment, Parenting Payment, Sickness Allowance & Youth Allowance)

• Disability Support Pension by medical condition

• Care Receiver by medical conditions

• Commonwealth Rent Assistance by Payment type and Income Unit type have been added from March 2017. For further information about Commonwealth Rent Assistance and Income Units see the Data Descriptions and Glossary included in the dataset.

From December 2022, the "DSS Expanded Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics – quarterly data" publication has introduced expanded reporting populations for income support recipients. As a result, the reporting population for Jobseeker Payment and Special Benefit has changed to include recipients who are current but on zero rate of payment and those who are suspended from payment. The reporting population for ABSTUDY, Austudy, Parenting Payment and Youth Allowance has changed to include those who are suspended from payment. The expanded report will replace the standard report after June 2023.

Additional data for DSS Expanded Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics – quarterly data includes:

• A new contents page to assist users locate the information within the spreadsheet

• Additional data for the ‘Suspended’ population in the ‘Payment by Rate’ tab to enable users to calculate the old reporting rules.

• Additional information on the Employment Earning by ‘Income Free Area’ tab.

From December 2022, Services Australia have implemented a change in the Centrelink payment system to recognise gender other than the sex assigned at birth or during infancy, or as a gender which is not exclusively male or female. To protect the privacy of individuals and comply with confidentialisation policy, persons identifying as ‘non-binary’ will initially be grouped with ‘females’ in the period immediately following implementation of this change. The Department will monitor the implications of this change and will publish the ‘non-binary’ gender category as soon as privacy and confidentialisation considerations allow.

Local Government Area has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2022 boundaries from June 2023.

Commonwealth Electorate Division has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 boundaries from June 2023.

SA2 has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 boundaries from June 2023.

From December 2021, the following are included in the report:

• selected payments by work capacity, by various demographic breakdowns

• rental type and homeownership

• Family Tax Benefit recipients and children by payment type

• Commonwealth Rent Assistance by proportion eligible for the maximum rate

• an age breakdown for Age Pension recipients

For further information, please see the Glossary.

From June 2021, data on the Paid Parental Leave Scheme is included yearly in June releases. This includes both Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay, across multiple breakdowns. Please see Glossary for further information.

From March 2017 the DSS demographic dataset will include top 25 countries of birth. For further information see the glossary.

From March 2016 machine readable files containing the three geographic breakdowns have also been published for use in National Map, links to these datasets are below:

• Statistical Area 2 - SA2

• Commonwealth Electoral Division - CED

• Local Government Area - LGA

Pre June 2014 Quarter Data contains:

Selected DSS payment data by

• Geography: state/territory; electorate; postcode and LGA

• Demographic: age, sex and Indigenous/non-Indigenous

Note: JobSeeker Payment replaced Newstart Allowance and other working age payments from 20 March 2020, for further details see: https://www.dss.gov.au/benefits-payments/jobseeker-payment

For data on DSS payment demographics as at June 2013 or earlier, the department has published data which was produced annually. Data is provided by payment type containing timeseries’, state, gender, age range, and various other demographics. Links to these publications are below:

• Statistical Paper series

Concession card data in the March and June 2020 quarters have been re-stated to address an over-count in reported cardholder numbers.

28/06/2024 – The March 2024 and December 2023 reports were republished with updated data in the ‘Carer Receivers by Med Condition’ section, updates are exclusive to the ‘Care Receivers of Carer Payment recipients’ table, under ‘Intellectual / Learning’ and ‘Circulatory System’ conditions only.

In 2019, Centrelink customers made a total of ***** million digital and online self service transactions, representing an annual increase since 2017. By contrast, just over ** million digital self service transactions were made with Medicare in 2019.

In 2021, businesses and organizations made a total of ** million EDI transactions with Centrelink in Australia. From 2017, the annual number of Electronic Data Interchange transactions between Centrelink and businesses had increased steadily.

Updated data for the Australian Government’s Income Management (IM) program will be available on the third Thursday of every month. The data summary will include: \r \r Table 1. Number of IM participants by location and measure \r \r 1.1 Northern Territory\r \r 1.2 Western Australia\r \r 1.3 Queensland \r \r 1.4 South Australia\r \r 1.5 Victoria \r \r 1.6 New South Wales\r \r \r Table 2. Number of IM participants with an active BasicsCard by State/Territory \r \r Table 3. Number of IM exemptions by Indigenous Indicator \r \r The data provided will be the last weekly data update for the previous month. \r \r Legislation \r \r Legislation for IM is located here in the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999.\r \r The Guide to Social Policy Law for IM is located here.\r \r \r Information about IM \r \r More information about Income Management is located here on the Department of Human Services web site.\r \r \r Locations\r \r The places that have IM, by State and Territory, is located here on the Department of Human Services web site. \r \r \r Data Confidentialisation Policy \r \r Table cells are suppressed where the count refers to less than five, but more than zero, people. The method is: \r \r * Cells with counts between one (1) and four (4) are presented as <5. \r * Cells with counts between one (1) and four (4) are presented as <5.\r * Cells with a count of zero (0) are not suppressed. \r * Where suppression has been applied and it is still possible to derive the cell value from other information in the table, the total/s or the next lowest aggregate cells are suppressed and presented with ‘n.p.’ (not provided). \r \r Data Caveats\r \r 1. Any variance from data reported prior to 28 August 2015 is due to a change to conform to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). \r 2. Inconsistencies may be attributed to participants moving from the location where they were originally triggered onto the program. \r 3. Participants with ‘Unknown’ locations did not have a recorded address at the time of data extraction. This often occurs because a participant is in the process of moving address. \r 4. ‘Uncategorised CIM’ customers are instances where a customer was assessed for Income Management but was never switched ON and assigned a Category Code. \r 5. ‘Greater Brisbane’ includes ‘Logan’. \r 6. ‘Far North’ includes ‘Cape York’. \r 7. For ‘Current Income Management Exemptions by Indigenous Indicator’, automatic exemptions for <25% of Max Payment is not included.

The Australian Government welfare service, Centrelink, was the most commonly used service on the myGov e-government service platform at ***** percent of all traffic for the month of May in 2019. In June and August 2018, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) experienced a spike in the number of logins. This corresponds with the end of the financial year on June 30 in Australia. In the months after June 30, the majority of tax-paying Australians are required to fill out and submit their annual tax return statements.

Tax time

Most Australians lodge their annual tax return through a tax agent. However, there has been little growth in the number of agent lodged tax returns in recent years, compared to the growing number of people who choose to do their tax themselves online. This notable growth in self-prepared tax returns is likely influenced by ongoing improvements to the ATO’s myTax online tax lodgement form, which auto-fills tax and income information and is free. Overall, red tape reduction through online services provided by the ATO was estimated to have saved individuals over ** million Australian dollars.

Paperless transactions and reducing red tape

Australians are embracing digitalized government services, with Centrelink customers alone engaging in over *** million online self-service transactions in 2019. E-government is not only convenient, but it can also be more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly. Social services customers can now opt to receive correspondence online, reducing paper usage for the department, and many online forms can be pre-filled with online account data, requiring less information to be filled out manually.

Agencies responsible for the administration and delivery of social security, family assistance, student assistance and related payments and programs publish a range of statistical information online. Relevant agencies include:
• Department of Human Services
• Department of Social Services
• Department of Education and Training
• Department of Health
• Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Published statistical information generally encompasses customer population data for key payments, with a pre-defined drill-down available for relevant demographic (e.g. gender, age) and geographic (e.g. national, state/territory) characteristics.The Department of Human Services also publishes a comprehensive suite of health related statistical information.
This dataset provides a summary of links to existing sources of statistical information published on a range of government websites, including those noted above and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The AIHW provides authoritative information and statistics to promote better health and wellbeing.
Humanservices.gov.au contains information about accessing statistical information. If not available online, you can request statistical information by emailing statistics@humanservices.gov.au. In providing this service, the Department of Human Services liaises with relevant agencies as required.

The Australian Government Department of Jobs and Small Business publishes a range of labour market data on its Labour Market Information Portal website (lmip.gov.au).

The link below provides data for the boundaries used by the Department in its administration of jobactive. These boundaries are known as Employment Regions. The data provided includes:

• jobactive caseload data (Australian Government Department of Employment administrative data);
• Centrelink administrative data - Australian Government Department of Employment extract;
• Unemployment rates (Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey data and Australian Government Department of Employment estimates, derived from Small Area Labour Markets estimates);
• Employment by industry and occupation (Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey data and Census of Population and Housing data);
• Population by age group data (Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey data and Australian Bureau of Statistics Estimated Resident Population).

This application presents JobSeeker Payment (previously Newstart Allowance) and Youth Allowance (other) recipients by SA2, comparing June 2019 to June 2024, combined with detailed demographics to support a greater understanding of unemployment payment distribution across Australia and changes in payment receipt over time. The number of unemployment payment recipients as of June 2024 is represented by the size of the circle for each SA2 (the larger the circle, the higher number of people receiving an unemployment payment), while the colour of the circle represents the change in unemployment payment receipt (see the legend for further details). Layers can be applied to display further supporting data and once an SA2 has been selected, detailed statistics are available on the ‘SA2 statistics’ page.This application is the result of collaboration between the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Geoscience Australia (GA).The application presents SA2 geographies. Unemployment payments data is published by DSS on data.gov.au. All supporting data is from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 'Data by Region' releases. The datasets included in the app are listed below:DSS Payments by Statistical Area 2*Selected DSS government pensions and allowances from 2019 to 2024 by 2021 SA2Selected DSS government pensions and allowances from 2019 to 2024 by 2021 SA2 TEABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) by 2021 SA2ABS Population and people by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023Regional Population Change 2022-23 by 2021 SA2ABS Economy and industry by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Persons born overseas by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Family and community by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Estimated resident population 2001–2021 by 2021 SA2ABS Education and employment by 2021 SA2 Nov 2023ABS Economy and industry by 2021 SA2*Note, periods prior to June 2023 have had a correspondence applied, to align the data to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2021 SA2 boundaries.The application was built using Experience Builder software and designed to display unemployment payment recipient distribution across the country alongside other relevant information. It is intended to familiarise non-GIS professionals with available data and tools, as well as the spatial format. It is not intended to replace GIS analysis for decision making. This application is designed primarily for desktop view. Mobile view may be made available in the future with reduced functionality.More information on data and statisticsDisclaimerTo protect the privacy of Australians, certain data has been modified by authorised entities, in compliance with privacy regulations. Due to this, statistics here should be taken as a guide to inform understanding, please assume a small margin of error when using the app.Data limitations • Areas with small populations (under 500), the data may have a higher margin of error. This is because minor inaccuracies can have a bigger impact in these areas. • In some cases, data may appear to be missing. This is where there is a 'Null' value meaning this information is unavailable for this area. • Total Unemployment Payment recipients are calculated by summing already rounded data, this may result in minor inaccuracies.• The application uses the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics population data available at the time of publication. The differing data dates may cause discrepancies in the calculation of proportional statistics (e.g., a high proportion of Income Support receipt where there has been extensive population growth between 2021 (when the census was collected) and the reported income support data date).Statistical Area Level 2 boundaries Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2s) are areas designed to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically. SA2s are updated every census to reflect current communities and follow suburb or local government areas where appropriate. SA2s are a common standard for understanding and representing population data. Learn more about SA2s.Unemployment payment data An unemployment payment refers to JobSeeker Payment (previously Newstart Allowance) and Youth Allowance (other), which are income support payments made to a recipient that helps with living costs, while they look for work. The income support payment data in this application is published by DSS and represents the number of unique recipients of each payment as at the last Friday of the reported month. To protect individuals’ privacy, all values have been rounded to the nearest 5, values from 1 to 7 are rounded to 5. Zero cells are actual zeros. For older periods, figures between 1-4 were randomly assigned a 0 or a 5. Note: reporting rules and policy settings have changed over time, the data in this application has been updated to align over the reported period. Data for periods prior to 2023 may not align with data previously published. See the DSS data on data.gov.au: DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - quarterly data | data.gov.au.Resources• A guide to Australian Government payments: Information on the different income support payments • Social Security Guide: Information on the legislation and how it's applied • DSS Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics: Quarterly Income Support data release. See ‘Glossary’ and ‘Data Descriptions’ tabs for further data details. • DSS JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance recipients: Monthly JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) data release. Supporting statistics All supporting data and statistics are from the ABS through their data by regions products on the Digital Atlas. Much of this data was collected as part of the most recent census (conducted in 2021). Data not from the census has been labelled accordingly. To learn more please see the data by regions methodology.SEIFA score The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) summarises areas according to their relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage then ranks them. The "IRSAD (percentile)" index used here shows where an area stands nationally in terms of disadvantage or advantage. Lower numbers indicate more disadvantage and higher numbers indicate more advantage. It's presented as a percentile to make it easier to understand the ranking. For example, an area with an IRSAD (percentile) of 5 is in the top 5% of disadvantaged areas in the country. Whereas an area with an IRSAD (percentile) of 96 is in the top 5% of advantaged areas in the country. Learn more about using and interpreting SEIFA data.

The DSS Payment Demographic data set is made up of: Selected DSS payment data by Geography: state/territory, electorate, postcode, LGA and SA2 (for 2015 onwards) Demographic: age, sex and …Show full descriptionThe DSS Payment Demographic data set is made up of: Selected DSS payment data by Geography: state/territory, electorate, postcode, LGA and SA2 (for 2015 onwards) Demographic: age, sex and Indigenous/non-Indigenous Duration on Payment (Working Age & Pensions) Duration on Income Support (Working Age, Carer payment & Disability Support Pension) Rate (Working Age & Pensions) Earnings (Working Age & Pensions) Age Pension assets data JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) Principal Carers Activity Tested Recipients by Partial Capacity to Work (NSA,PPS & YAO) Exits within 3, 6 and 12 months (Newstart Allowance/JobSeeker Payment, Parenting Payment, Sickness Allowance & Youth Allowance) Disability Support Pension by medical condition Care Receiver by medical conditions Commonwealth Rent Assistance by Payment type and Income Unit type have been added from March 2017. For further information about Commonwealth Rent Assistance and Income Units see the Data Descriptions and Glossary included in the dataset. Local Government Area has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2020 boundaries from March 2021. Commonwealth Electorate Division has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2018 boundaries from March 2019. SA2 has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2016 boundaries from March 2019. Prior to this Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2011 was used. From March 2017 the DSS demographic dataset will include top 25 countries of birth. For further information see the glossary. From March 2016 machine readable files containing the three geographic breakdowns have also been published for use in National Map, links to these datasets are below: 2016 SA2 2011 SA2 2018 Commonwealth Electoral Division 2016 Commonwealth Electoral Division 2013 Commonwealth Electoral Division 2020 Local Government Area 2018 Local Government Area 2014 Local Government Area Pre June 2014 Quarter Data contains: Selected DSS payment data by Geography: state/territory; electorate; postcode and LGA Demographic: age, sex and Indigenous/non-Indigenous Note: JobSeeker Payment replaced Newstart Allowance and other working age payments from 20 March 2020, for further details see: https://www.dss.gov.au/benefits-payments/jobseeker-payment For data on DSS payment demographics as at June 2013 or earlier, the department has published data which was produced annually. Data is provided by payment type containing timeseries’, state, gender, age range, and various other demographics. Links to these publications are below: Statistical Paper series Occasional Paper series, Numbers 1 & 7 Concession card data in the March and June 2020 quarters have been re-stated to address an over-count in reported cardholder numbers.

In 2019, ** percent of myGov accounts in Australia were only linked to one service. The services available through the myGov platform included Centrelink, Medicare, the Australian Tax Office, and the My Health Record, however, the majority of users only had *** or *** accounts linked.

The number of Income Support Payment recipients, Family Tax Benefit recipients, selected supplementary payment recipients and Concession Card Holders at the end of each quarter for each Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2). Counts are provided from quarter 1, 2016 to the present.Abstract The Department of Social Services (DSS) provides counts of Income Support Payment recipients, Family Tax Benefit recipients, selected supplementary payment recipients and Concession Card Holders at the end of each quarter for each Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2). Counts are provided from quarter 1, 2016 to the present. The following recipients and card holders are counted.

ABSTUDY (Living Allowance) ABSTUDY (Non Living Allowance) Age Pension Austudy Carer Allowance Carer Allowance - Child Health Care Card Only Carer Payment Commonwealth Seniors Health Card Disability Support Pension Family Tax Benefit A Family Tax Benefit B Health Care Card Low Income Card Newstart Allowance Jobseeker Payment Parenting Payment Partnered Parenting Payment Single Partner Allowance Pension Concession Card Sickness Allowance Special Benefit Widow Allowance Widow B Pension Wife Pension (Partner on Age Pension) Wife Pension (Partner on Disability Support Pension) Youth Allowance (Other) Youth Allowance (Student and Apprentice) Commonwealth Rent Assistance

Why this is useful

Better understand how your local community is changing over time. Data from 2016 means both spatial and time-related analyses can be performed. Identify trajectories in the number of recipients by SA2, to identify appropriate services for changing communities. Help vulnerable communities plan for and respond to emergencies. Note: reporting rules and policy settings have changed over time. The data from different periods may not be directly comparable.Each Statistical Area is duplicated 32 times, one for each quarter. For each quarter there are over 20 benefit types. Presenting all of that information on one map is impossible. Even displaying one benefit type for all SA2s for one quarter will be slow to display. If possible limit investigations to a small geographic area or time period.To begin, decide if you want to investigate the spatial distribution of recipients of a payment type or concession card across multiple SA2s, or if you want to investigate how the number of recipients of a payment type or concession card changes over time. To view the spatial distribution of recipients of a payment type or concession card

Add this layer to a new map. Click Properties on the right hand side. Click edit layer style and click the x next to the attribute currently symbolised. Click field and select the payment type or concession card you want to investigate on the map. To display just one quarter click filter and then Add expression. Replace the current field with Quarter, select "is on" and then select a date from the list. Select a style, colour scheme and theme appropriate for the purpose of your map. Rename the layer to better reflect the payment type or concession card and quarter just selected. Click the ellipsis next to the layer name and enter a new title.

To view the distribution of social security recipients over time

Add this layer to a new map. Click Properties on the right hand side. Click edit layer style and click the x next to the attribute currently symbolised. Click field and select the payment type or concession card you want to investigate on the map. To display just a subset of SA2s click filter and then Add expression. Replace the current field with "SA2 code", "SA2 Name" or "State and Territory name", whichever will let you focus your analysis appropriately. More than one SA2 can be specified. Select a style, colour scheme and theme appropriate for the purpose of your map. Click on "Time" to display the time slider allowing you to view how the number of recipients in the chosen SA2 changes over time. Rename the layer to better reflect the payment type or concession card and quarter just selected. Click the ellipsis next to the layer name and enter a new title.

These instructions are not exhaustive and only outline two workflows possible with this layer. Currency Date modified: May 2024 Update frequency: Quarterly Data Extent Spatial Extent

West Bounding Longitude: 109.7° East Bounding Longitude: 159.4° North Bounding Latitude: -6.9° South Bounding Latitude: -45.5°

Temporal Extent January 2016 - Present Source Information Social security data is provided by the Department of Social Services.

Metadata Public listing

Statistical Areas Level 2 geographies are provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Metadata Public listing

Lineage Statement This layer was put together using two data sources: social security data provided by the Department of Social Services was joined to the Statistical Areas Level 2 provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Social Security Recipients

A recipient or card holder is counted if they are current or suspended on the Centrelink payment system as at the end of the quarter. The address provided by a recipient or card holder is geocoded to determine their SA2. From December 2022, to protect individuals’ privacy, all counts have been rounded to the nearest 5. Values from 1 to 7 are rounded to 5. Zero counts 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. Prior to December 2022, where a SA2 has 5 or less recipients, the number 0 or 5 was randomly assigned to the SA2 to ensure individuals can not be identified. The payment type "Commonwealth Rent Assistance income units" is only available from March 2017. Widow B Pension ceased on 20 March 2020. Recipients were transferred to the Age Pension.

The data available at data.gov.au was used. dss-payments-by-2011-statistical-area-2.csv dss-payments-2016-sa2-jun-2019-to-mar-2023 map-historic.csv dss-demographics-2021-sa2-december-2023.csv Each file contains about 30 columns. Each row describes the number of recipients for each benefit type for the end of each quarter and the SA2 in which the recipient resides. For example, a typical line in dss-payments-2016-sa2-jun-2019-to-mar-2023 map-historic.csv looks like. 2019-03,11007,Braidwood,0,5,487,5,76,5,42,113,147,203,165,172,106,23,10,32,806,0,7,8,143,0,5,0,5,5 2019-03 - Last month of the quarter. 11007 - Unique five digit code comprising the State and Territory identifier and SA2 identifier. NSW is 1, Braidwood is 1007. Braidwood - Unique name given to each SA2. All subsequent integers are recipient and card holder counts for that SA2. In dss-demographics-2021-sa2-december-2023.csv the 9 digit identifier replaces the 5 digit code used in the previous two CSVs. This is because as at ASGS edition 3 the 5 digit codes are no longer used. See ABS for more information. Columns in each CSV were renamed to ensure consistency across the entire time period. Some columns were merged as shown below.

dss-payments-by-2011-statistical-area-2.csv dss-payments-2016-sa2-jun-2019-to-mar-2023 map-historic.csv dss-demographics-2021-sa2-december-2023.csv Becomes

JobSeeker Payment Newstart Allowance / JobSeeker Payment Newstart Allowance Newstart Allowance or JobSeeker Payment

Commonwealth Rent Assistance Commonwealth Rent Assistance Commonwealth Rent Assistance (income units) Commonwealth Rent Assistance

Pension Concession Card Pension Concession Card Pensioner Concession Card Pension Concession Card

Australian Statistical Geography - Statistical Area Level 2 The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) is a classification of Australia into a hierarchy of statistical areas. First introduced in 2011, the ASGS replaced the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) that had been used since 1984. The ASGS is a social geography, developed to reflect the location of people and communities, and used for the release and analysis of statistics and other data. The ASGS is updated every 5 years to account for growth and change in Australia's population, economy and infrastructure. The Statistical Area Level 2 is the third highest resolution (third lowest level) in the ASGS hierarchy of social geography.

Three editions of ASGS are used in this product: Edition 1 2011, Edition 2 2016 and Edition 3 2021. They are all available from the ABS as ArcGIS Feature Services. ASGS 2011 SA2 ASGS 2016 SA2 ASGS 2021 SA2 Data Preparation Joining social security data to SA2 geographies The table below shows which social security CSV was joined to which ASGS Edition.

CSV file name ASGS edition

dss-payments-by-2011-statistical-area-2.csv ASGS Edition 1 2011

dss-payments-2016-sa2-jun-2019-to-mar-2023 map-historic.csv ASGS Edition 2 2016

dss-demographics-2021-sa2-december-2023.csv ASGS Edition 3 2021

After the join the ASGS edition used is assigned to each row so users know which ASGS edition is used. The first two CSVs were joined to SA2 geographies using the 5 digit code; the third CSV used the 9 digit code. Data loss The social security CSVs and corresponding ASGS editions have the following record counts.

CSV file name Recipient Row Count grouped by SA2 ASGS Edition Row Count

dss-payments-by-2011-statistical-area-2.csv 2214 2196

dss-payments-2016-sa2-jun-2019-to-mar-2023 map-historic.csv 2292 2292

dss-demographics-2021-sa2-december-2023.csv 2454 2473

The first CSV file has more SA2s than the service provided by the ABS. The second CSV has the same number and the third has less. This discrepancy is due to the inconsistent use and representation of special purpose code SA2s in both the DSS CSVs and ABS web feature services. Special purpose code SA2s are used by ABS to capture demographics for people in transit such as air and ship crews and people with no fixed address. They are not represented by geographies in the ABS provided ASGS feature

In 2022, ** percent of respondents receiving assistance from the Salvation Army and whose main income source was Centrelink payments were living below the poverty line in Australia. Around ** percent of respondents in full-time employment were living below the poverty line in the same year.

Medicare provides access to medical and hospital services for all Australian residents and certain categories of visitors to Australia. The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) lists services that are …Show full descriptionMedicare provides access to medical and hospital services for all Australian residents and certain categories of visitors to Australia. The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) lists services that are subsidised by the Australian Government under Medicare. This data provides statistics on groups of MBS services. MBS groups (ie. category, groups and subgroup) are described in the MBS online. Data is provided in the following formats: Excel: The human readable data for the current year is provided in an individual excel file. Historical data (1993-2015) may be found in the excel zipped file. CSV: The machine readable data for the current year is provided in an individual csv file. Historical data (1993-2015) may be found in the csv zipped file. Additional Medicare statistics may be found on the Department of Human Services website. Disclaimer: The information and data contained in the reports and tables have been provided by Medicare Australia for general information purposes only. While Medicare Australia takes care in the compilation and provision of the information and data, it does not assume or accept liability for the accuracy, quality, suitability and currency of the information or data, or for any reliance on the information and data. Medicare Australia recommends that users exercise their own care, skill and diligence with respect to the use and interpretation of the information and data.

In 2019, more myGov accounts were linked to the Australian Tax Office online service than any other member service, representing ***** percent of myGov accounts. Centrelink and Medicare had also been adopted by over a quarter of myGov accounts respectively.

In 2019 in Australia, close to ** percent of people with a disability experienced problems accessing Centrelink, Family Assistance Office, and Medicare. Over one-third of people with disabilities experienced problems accessing telecommunication services that year.

Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is a major study following the development of approximately 10,000 young people and their families from all parts of Australia. It is conducted in partnership between the Department of Social Services, the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Australian Bureau of Statistics with advice provided by a consortium of leading researchers. The study began in 2003 with a representative sample of children (who are now teens and young adults) from urban and rural areas of all states and territories in Australia. The study has a multi-disciplinary base, and examines a broad range of research questions about development and wellbeing over the life course in relation to topics such as parenting, family, peers, education, child care and health. It will continue to follow participants into adulthood. The study informs social policy and is used to identify opportunities for early intervention and prevention strategies. Participating families have been interviewed every two years from 2004, and between-wave mail-out questionnaires were sent to families in 2005 (Wave 1.5), 2007 (Wave 2.5) and 2009 (Wave 3.5). The B cohort (“Baby” cohort) of around 5,000 children was aged 0–1 years in 2003–04, and the K cohort (“Kinder” cohort) of around 5,000 children was aged 4–5 years in 2003–04. Study informants include the young person, their parents (both resident and non-resident), carers and teachers. The study links to administrative databases including Medicare (Immunisation, MBS and PBS), NAPLAN, AEDC and Centrelink – with participant consent – thereby adding valuable information to supplement the data collected during fieldwork. In 2014-15, a special one-off physical health and biomarkers assessment of parent-child pairs was undertaken in the younger cohort. The cross-generational datasets from this ‘Child Health CheckPoint’ are available in the Additional Release files.

In financial year 2020, the estimated expenditure of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) in Australia was ***** million Australian dollars. In the following year, the Australian Government budgeted its largest expenditure for the Agency, with forward estimates showing a gradual reduction in expenditure thereafter. The DTA was formed in 2016 to oversee the Australian government’s digital transformation strategy which is underpinned by ***** strategic priorities for a government that is; easy to deal with, informed by its citizens, and fit for the digital age.

E-government services through myGov

With the establishment of a growing number of e-government services through the myGov online service portal, Australia is well underway in achieving its digital transformation goals. In 2020, Australia ranked within the top 10 world e-government leaders, on par with Sweden and the UK, and more than ** million Australians held a myGov account. As of 2019, over a quarter of MyGov accounts were linked to Australian Tax Office online services, with similar proportions linked to Centrelink and Medicare.

Building digital infrastructure

Before the myGov digital platform was launched, Australia underwent a major upgrade to its copper wire telecommunications network in the form of the National Broadband Network (NBN). The NBN now provides broadband internet connections to individuals and businesses across the country, creating the necessary foundation for accessing e-government services. However, having access to the internet is only one element of delivering accessible e-government services, while disadvantaged groups could be at risk of being further disadvantaged by significant changes to the way services are delivered.