High and persistent unemployment has presented a major challenge for the welfare state from two directions. First, it has eroded the funding base and second, it has increased the demands on welfare programs because of the consequences for poverty and inequality resulting from high unemployment....

This paper compares the living standards of family types using a variety of indicators of disadvantage and examines the impact of disadvantage on several dimensions of well-being. The indicators are poverty (defined in income terms), deprivation (defined as an enforced lack of socially perceived...

Recent reforms to the Australian system of income support for the unemployed have been designed to encourage the welfare to work transition. Mutual obligation measures have been accompanied by an easing of the income test taper rate and by less generous indexation arrangements for unemployment...

This paper uses data from the General Customer Survey (GCS) to examine patterns of movement off the benefit system among recipients of Newstart Allowance and Parenting Payment. The analysis covers the first three waves of the GCS, which commenced in March 2000 and follows recipients after they...