2010

Project  Descriptions:

Project 2010/01: Female labour participation response to changes in the minimum pension age

This research project analyses the impact of changes in the minimum age of eligibility for the Age Pension for females since 1995 on their labour force participation. This policy change had two main objectives, to delay the take-up of income support and to improve incentives for labour force participation.
Two approaches will be used to address this impact of changes in pension eligibility on labour force participation. The first uses the  Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey data to compare the labour force participation behaviour of those affected by each ‘step’ change in the eligibility age with those just older than them not affected by the same change.
The second approach will be to use administrative data (the Longitudinal Data Set - LDS) in a similar manner to assess whether those affected by each ‘step’ change in the eligibility age had different rates of earned income and/or participation patterns on other forms of welfare than individuals not affected by the pension age eligibility changes.

Project 2010/02: Responses to financial stress at life transition points

The purpose of this project is to assess the experiences of financial stress and reported satisfaction with their financial position among individuals as they move through key lifetime transition points and/or negative economic shocks, such as: losing a job, becoming unemployed, living on welfare, starting a family, marital dissolution, and retirement, among other factors.
The approach employed will involve estimation of fixed effect regressions of indicators of financial stress and the satisfaction of individuals with their financial position using HILDA panel data, identifying the effects of interest as their circumstances change.

Project 2010/03: Emergency relief – the evidence

This project addresses key knowledge gaps relating to Emergency relief (ER) clients, including: their characteristics; how they are assisted; the outcomes of ER; which service delivery models provide the best outcomes for clients; and providers’ capacity to meet demand. 
The project involves meta analysis of  recent ER studies and analysis of additional data supplied by a small number of ER providers that have more sophisticated information systems.   

Project 2010/04: Income support reliance among young carers

This research project investigates the long term outcomes for young carers – how long they continue to provide care, whether they combine caring with education/employment while providing care, and what happens to them after they cease providing care.  Reliance on income support for long periods after ceasing care may be indicative of a negative long term outcome of caring, which will have policy implications regarding providing support to young carers to prepare for when they are no longer providing care.
The methodology involves analysis of two sources of administrative data.  The first is a data set of carers summarizing their history of receipts between 2001 and 2006. The second is the LDS which will provide information on the income support experience of young people on other payments over the same period.   

Project 2010/05: How do people use assets after they reach superannuation preservation age?

This project addresses how people use their income and asset portfolios once they reach preservation age, when superannuation savings can be accessed.  The project aims to identify whether:

• there are particular groups or factors associated with high levels of asset use, particularly drawdown, after reaching preservation age (myopic behaviour);
• some groups may be accumulating or maintaining assets over retirement rather than drawing on them.

The project will utilise household level longitudinal data, the HILDA survey. It will involve a review of current Australian and overseas literature on patterns and trends in the asset use or accumulation of savings after age 55.

Project 2010/06: Training course for FaHCSIA staff: Economics for social policy analysis

Provision of the course “Economics for social policy analysis”. 
This subject sought to provide a public manager’s guide to basic economic principles and their application to a selected group of social policy topics on issues drawn from Australian society and the economy.
The course will run for 10 weeks with one 2 hour session per week.

Project 2010/07: Establishing a framework for the further development of deprivation, hardship and well being statistics

The objective of the project is to develop a background and framework document that would act as a starting point for a collaborative effort between users and data providers for the expansion of the set of deprivation/well-being indicators used in major Australian surveys.
There are two key components of the proposal. A literature review which would encompass a review of the range of indicators developed and used in Australia and overseas, and explore the relationship between the use of these types of deprivation measures and developments in other approaches to well-being. It is anticipated that some illustrative analysis will be included drawing upon these indicators in the Household Expenditure Survey and HILDA.

2009