Low income status code N

Guide for use:

The household income cut off measures used for this metadata item have been developed in relation to statutory government income support payments.

CODE 1 Low income A

Income equivalent to or below 100% of the government income support benefits at the pensioner rate. The pensioner (single & couple) benefit rate has been selected as the low income A household cut-off measure, as pension rates are higher than allowance rates (e.g. unemployment benefits). The selection of the higher benefit rate should allow all persons receiving up to or equivalent to 100% government income support benefits (e.g. pensioners, unemployed, youth allowance, etc.) to be captured within the low income A household cut-off measure.

It should be noted that this group might include some income earners, provided their total income is not greater than 100% of the pensioner rate of government income support benefits. This is especially likely for young people who are working, as the government allowance rates for young people are lower than those for pensioners and young people would need to be employed to have an equivalent income.

CODE 2 Low income B

This measure is the effective cut-out for receiving any government income support benefits. It includes:

• adult (single or couple) pension rate;
• where eligible, family tax benefit part A (up to the full rate);
• income free areas for both adults and children; and
• pharmaceutical allowance.

For further information on calculating low income status see the most recent Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement (CSHA) Public rent housing data manual.

CSHA community housing data collection:

For the CSHA community housing data collection, it is assumed that all households paying a rent less than the market rent value of the dwelling are low income households.