Low income parents: factors that promote self-reliant families
Vic Pearse
Department of Family and Community Services
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In April 2003 a research project commenced on ‘The dynamics of low income, welfare reliance and changes in the family structure of parents with dependent children’. This project is being carried out under an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant with the ANU, FaCS and AIFS as Industry Partners. Using FaCS administrative records and supplementary surveys this project builds several longitudinal databases on low-income parents. Looking back - fortnightly records since 1995 have been added to recent survey data, which is both retrospective and current. Looking forward - longitudinal data is added to the dataset as it becomes available. The final dataset is expected to contain 10 years of longitudinal data on low-income parents.

Important themes for the Parents on Low Incomes Study (POLIS) are welfare reliance over the lifecycle and movements between income support and self-reliance. Using a sample of self-reliant families receiving FTB Payments this paper will explore the characteristics of self-reliant families and identify factors that promote self-reliance in families.

This session will present findings from work in progress, focusing particularly on the influence of work and family dynamics and family background on levels of self-reliance. From this research we start to uncover what factors are associated with greater self-reliance

Paper Download Information (if available):

Paper73.pdf

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