In financial year 2023, the number of Indigenous people who received assistance from a homelessness agency in Australia was around **** thousand. This represented an increase from financial year 2014, when about **** thousand Indigenous people received services from a homelessness agency in the country.

The Department of Social Services (DSS) is the Australian Government’s preeminent source of advice on social policy and works in partnership with other government and non-government organisations to manage a diverse range of programs and services designed to support and improve the lives of Australians. DSS has whole of government responsibility

• Families and Children

• Housing Support

• Seniors

• Communities and Vulnerable People

• Disability and Carers

• Women's Safety

• Mental Health

• Settlement and Multicultural Affairs

• Ageing and Aged Care

• Review of Australia’s Welfare System

This statistical overview presents information about income support payments and customers administered by a number of Australian Government departments.

Unless otherwise indicated, the statistics relate to the relevant pay periods closest to 30 June. These periods will generally be within a fortnight either side of that date.

Key sections of the overview are:

• payments for older people,

• people with disability and

• those caring for people with disability, severe medical conditions,

• or those who are frail aged

• student and labour market related payments

• family assistance

• other payments and services

• pensioners paid overseas.

Payment and allowance information, including eligibility criteria, are included within each section. When The Department of Social Services was formed in September 2013 the publishing of the Statistical Paper series ceased. The DSS Payments Demographic Data Set is updated quarterly and covers the majority of the information contained in the Statistical Paper series. Please contact the Data Requests team if you have any questions in relation to this publication or the DSS Payment Demographic Data Set.

Further information to assist with the interpretation of statistics is available from the DSS and Human Services websites:

Department of Human Services (DHS)

Department of Social Services (DSS).

In financial year 2023, the number of Indigenous people who received assistance from a homelessness agency in South Australia, Australia was around *** thousand. The number of Indigenous women who used homelessness services was higher than the men in every financial year.

In financial year 2023, the number of Indigenous people who received assistance from a homelessness agency in Queensland, Australia was around ** thousand. This represented an increase from financial year 2014, when about ** thousand Indigenous people received services from a homelessness agency in the state.

In financial year 2023, the number of Indigenous people who received assistance from a homelessness agency in Tasmania, Australia was around *** thousand. This represented an increase from financial year 2014, when about *** Indigenous people received services from a homelessness agency in the state.

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.