6523.0 - Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia, 2011-12
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 16/08/2013
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EXPLANATORY NOTES
Changes to the survey sample 7 The expansion in the 2009-10 sample for an extra 4,200 households was maintained in the 2011-12 SIH. This additional sample of households outside capital cities better supports Council of Australian Governments (COAG) performance indicator reporting, particularly in regard to housing affordability and home ownership measures required under COAG intergovernmental agreements. 8 The additional sample of metropolitan households whose main source of income was a government pension, benefit and/or allowance included in the 2009-10 SIH and HES samples has not been maintained in the 2011-12 sample. The main purpose of this additional sample was to support improved analysis for the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI). Income measures 9 In 2007-08 the ABS revised its standards for household income statistics following the adoption of new international standards in 2004 and review of aspects of the collection and dissemination of income data. The income estimates from 2007-08 onwards apply the new income standards, and are not directly comparable with estimates for previous cycles. 10 To the extent possible, the estimates for 2003-04 and 2005-06 shown in the time series tables in this publication also reflect the new treatments. 11 For more detail on the nature and impact of the changes on the income data see Appendix 4 of Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia, 2007-08 (cat. no. 6523.0). Other changes 12 Errors in processing the 2009-10 income data have been corrected, resulting in an average decrease of $1 for mean equivalised disposable household income across all households. This was reflected largely in a decrease of 0.04% in the mean equivalised disposable household income of households in the second and third deciles. The income estimates for 2009-10 shown in this publication have been revised. The second edition of the 2009-10 CURF includes the revised estimates. CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 13 The concepts and definitions relating to statistics of income are described in the following section. Other definitions are included in the glossary. Person and household data 14 A major determinant of economic wellbeing for most people is the level of income they and other family members in the same household receive. 15 While income is usually received by individuals, it is normally shared between partners in a couple relationship and with dependent children. To a lesser extent, it may be shared with other children, other relatives and possibly other people living in the same household, for example through the provision of free or reduced accommodation costs. This is particularly likely to be the case for children other than dependants and other relatives with low levels of income of their own. Even when there is no transfer of income between members of a household, nor provision of free or reduced accommodation costs, members are still likely to benefit from the economies of scale that arise from the sharing of dwellings. 16 Household characteristics, including household income, are therefore the main information required for analysing income distribution. However, it is the number of people who belong to households with particular characteristics, rather than the number of households with those characteristics, that is of primary interest in measuring income distribution and leads to the preference for the equal representation of those persons in such analysis. For example, if the person is used as the unit of analysis rather than the household, then the representation in the income distribution of each person in a household comprising four persons is the same as that for each person in a household comprising two persons. In contrast, if the household were to be used as the unit of analysis, each person in the four person household would only have half the representation of each person in the two person household. 17 In this publication, the income distribution measures are all calculated with respect to persons, including children. Such measures are sometimes known as person weighted estimates. They are described in more detail in Appendix 1. Nevertheless, as most of the relevant characteristics of persons relate to their household circumstances, Tables 6 to 17 primarily describe the households to which people belong. Income 18 Household income consists of all current receipts, whether monetary or in kind, that are received by the household or by individual members of the household, and which are available for, or intended to support, current consumption. 19 Income includes receipts from:
20 Receipts of family tax benefit are treated as income, regardless of whether they are received fortnightly or as a lump sum. The aged persons' savings bonus and self-funded retirees' supplementary bonus, paid as part of the introduction of The New Tax System in 2000-01 are regarded as capital transfers as they were designed to help retired people maintain the value of their savings and investments following the introduction of the GST. However, the one-off payment to older Australians paid in 2000-01, 2005-06 and 2007-08, the one-off payment to families paid since 2003-04, and the one-off payments to carers paid since 2003-04, are included as income as they were primarily a supplement to existing income support payments. The maternity payment introduced in July 2004, now referred to as the Baby Bonus, and the Paid Parental Leave payment are also included as income. 21 The one-off Clean Energy Advance payment paid in May 2012 and June 2012 is also included as income. This one-off payment was paid to pensioners, other income support recipients, families receiving Family Tax Benefit payments and Senior Supplement recipients, provided they met eligibility requirements. 22 Also included as income is the one-off Education Tax Refund that was paid to eligible families in June 2012. This one-off payment was made payable to families receiving Family Tax Benefit Part A, plus young people in school receiving Youth Allowance and some other income support and veterans' payments, providing they met the age and education requirements. Gross income 23 Gross income is the sum of the income from all sources before income tax and the Medicare levy have been deducted. Prior to 2005-06 family tax benefit paid through the tax system or as a lump sum was excluded from gross income for practical reasons but deducted in deriving disposable income. Since 2005-06 these payments have been included in gross income. Disposable income 24 Disposable income better represents the economic resources available to meet the needs of households. It is derived by deducting estimates of personal income tax and the Medicare levy from gross income. Medicare levy surcharge was also calculated and deducted from gross income while calculating disposable income (as it was for the first time in 2007-08). 25 Income tax is estimated for all households using taxation criteria for 2011-12 and the income and other characteristics of household members reported in the survey. 26 Prior to 2005-06 the derivation of disposable income also included the addition of family tax benefit paid through the tax system or as a lump sum by Centrelink since for practical reasons it was not included in the gross income estimates. Equivalised disposable income 27 Most analyses in this publication use equivalised disposable household income rather than gross or disposable income since it enables comparison of the relative economic wellbeing of households of different size and composition. Equivalised disposable household income is calculated by adjusting disposable income by the application of an equivalence scale. This adjustment reflects the requirement for a larger household to have a higher level of income to achieve the same standard of living as a smaller household. Where disposable income is negative, it is set to zero equivalised disposable income. 28 When household income is adjusted according to an equivalence scale, the equivalised income can be viewed as an indicator of the economic resources available to a standardised household. For a lone person household, it is equal to income received. For a household comprising more than one person, equivalised income is an indicator of the household income that would be required by a lone person household in order to enjoy the same level of economic wellbeing as the household in question. 29 For more information on equivalised income see Appendix 3. Lowest income decile 30 While equivalised income generally provides a useful indicator of economic wellbeing, there are some circumstances which present particular difficulties. Some households report extremely low and even negative income in the survey, which places them well below the safety net of income support provided by government pensions and allowances. Households may under report their incomes in the survey at all income levels, including low income households. However, households can correctly report low levels of income if they incur losses in their unincorporated business or have negative returns from their other investments. 31 Studies of income and expenditure reported in HES surveys have shown that such households in the bottom income decile and with negative gross incomes tend to have expenditure levels that are comparable to those of households with higher income levels (and slightly above the average expenditures recorded for the fifth income decile). This suggests that these households have access to economic resources such as wealth, or that the instance of low or negative income is temporary, perhaps reflecting business or investment start up. Other households in the lowest income decile in past surveys had average incomes at about the level of the single pension rate, were predominantly single person households, and their main source of income was largely government pensions and allowances. However, on average, these households also had expenditures above the average of the households in the second income decile, which is not inconsistent with the use of assets to maintain a higher standard of living than implied by their incomes alone. 32 It can therefore be reasonably concluded that many of the households included in the lowest income decile are unlikely to be suffering extremely low levels of economic wellbeing. Income distribution analysis may lead to inappropriate conclusions if such households are used as the basis for assessing low levels of economic wellbeing. For this reason, tables showing statistics classified by income quintiles include a supplementary category comprising the second and third income deciles, which can be used as an alternative to the lowest income quintile. (For an explanation of quintiles and deciles, see Appendix 1.) 33 Whenever a HES is conducted, analysis of households in the lowest income decile can be improved through direct observation of the expenditure and net worth of these households. An examination of the characteristics and economic circumstances of people living in households with low economic resources from 2009-10 HIES is included in the feature article in Household Wealth and Wealth Distribution, Australia, 2009-10 (cat. no. 6554.0). 34 Although expenditure data was not collected in SIH 2011-12, analysis on people living in households with low economic resources such as low income, low wealth is provided in the feature article in this publication. Current income 35 Income is collected using a number of different reporting periods, such as the whole financial year for own unincorporated business and investment income, and the usual payment for a period close to the time of interview for wages and salaries, other sources of private income and government pensions and allowances. The income reported is divided by the number of weeks in the reporting period. Estimates of weekly income in this publication do not therefore refer to a given week within the reference period of the survey. Annual income 36 The tables in the main body of this publication refer to 'current' weekly income, that is, income being received at the time the data were collected from respondents. The survey also produces measures of 'annual' income that reflect total incomes for the previous financial year. Appendix 2 explains how current income differs from annual income, notes some of the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of measure and presents some 'annual' income estimates. Imputed rent 37 In May 2008 the ABS released household level estimates of imputed rent, derived from data reported in the 2003-04 and 2005-06 SIH for the first time (Experimental Estimates of Imputed Rent, Australia, 2003-04 and 2005-06 (cat. no. 6525.0)). The availability of imputed rent estimates allows the analysis of household income to be extended to include the imputed rental incomes that flow to people living in homes owned by the occupant and those paying subsidised rent. 38 Such imputations allow for more meaningful comparison of the income circumstances of people living in different tenure types, and to understand changes over time in income levels and the distribution of income when tenures may be changing over time. Including imputed rent as part of household income and expenditure conceptually treats owner-occupiers as if they were renting their home from themselves, thus simultaneously incurring rental expenditure and earning rental income. Imputed rent is included in income on a net basis i.e. the imputed value of the services received less the value of the housing costs incurred by the household in their role as a landlord. 39 Hedonic regression is used to estimate the market value of the rental equivalent of an owner-occupied dwelling. Data from the SIH on reported rents paid by private market renters is regressed on the characteristics of their rented dwellings e.g. location and dwelling structure. The estimated coefficients are then applied to the corresponding characteristics of owner-occupied and other dwellings to produce imputed values of the gross rental equivalence for these dwellings. 40 Net imputed rent is estimated as gross imputed rent less reported housing costs. For owner occupiers, the housing costs subtracted are those which would normally be paid by landlords i.e. rates, mortgage interest, insurance, repairs and maintenance. For households paying subsidised rent (e.g. tenants of an employer or of a state/territory housing authority) and households occupying their dwelling rent-free, the housing costs that are subtracted are largely made up of the reported rent paid, but other housing costs incurred, such as rates, are also subtracted for some tenure types. In the case of tenants of state/territory housing authorities, the net imputed rent estimates have been benchmarked to administrative data on the mean weekly rental subsidy. Child care payments 41 Child Care Benefit (CCB) is a payment from the Australian Government that assists families with the costs of registered or approved child care. The scheme is means-tested and allocates an hourly amount that can either be remitted to child care consumers after child care has been paid, or child care organisations can receive the CCB from the Government, therefore reducing the child care fees payable by the amount of the benefit. 42 Child Care Rebate (CCR) is also an Australian Government payment that, like CCB, assists families with the cost of child care. Unlike CCB, it is not a fixed hourly rate, but a refund of 50% of child care costs (after any rebates like CCB), up to a per child, per year limit ($7,500 per child per year in 2011-12). Families are eligible for CCB for up to 50 hours a week per child. Although certain requirements must be met to qualify for CCR, the eligibility tests are different from those for the CCB. 43 Estimates of CCB and CCR are collected from the child care questions, however there has been a significant gap between the reported number of households receiving assistance and the total value of that assistance, compared to administrative records. In SIH 2011-12, CCB and CCR have been modelled to improve the estimates of these payments. Child care assistance is conceptually treated as social transfers in kind, including administrative overhead as part of the value of the transfer. Social transfers in kind 44 Social transfers in kind consist of goods and services provided free or at subsidised prices by the government. The allocation of social transfers in kind presented in this publication is restricted to government expenditure that is relatable to particular types of households. Information reported in the 2011-12 SIH was used as the basis for allocating social transfers in kind for the provision of education, health, housing, child care, electricity concessions and other social security and welfare services. 45 The total value of social transfers in kind was defined as Commonwealth, state or territory and local government expenses, net of intra-government transfers, minus government pensions and allowances paid in cash minus government revenue from the sale of goods and services. 46 Appendix 4 provides estimates of social transfers in kind and outlines the methodologies used to allocate the social transfers in kind to individual households in 2011-12. A data cube will be published on the ABS web site in August 2013 that contains detailed social transfers in kind allocations for subpopulations. Net worth 47 Net worth, often referred to as wealth, is the value of a household's assets less the value of its liabilities. Assets can take many forms including:
48 Liabilities are primarily the value of loans outstanding including:
49 In the 2011-12 SIH, some asset and liability data were collected on a net basis rather than collecting for each component listed above. In particular, if a survey respondent owned or part owned a business, they were asked how much they would receive if they sold their share of the business and paid off any outstanding debts. 50 While this publication provides some household net worth statistics, principally to aid income analysis, a more comprehensive range of household asset and liability information will be released in August 2013 in Household Wealth and Wealth Distribution, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 6554.0). SURVEY METHODOLOGY Scope 51 The survey collects information by personal interview from usual residents of private dwellings in urban and rural areas of Australia (excluding very remote areas), covering about 97% of the people living in Australia. Private dwellings are houses, flats, home units, caravans, garages, tents and other structures that were used as places of residence at the time of interview. Long-stay caravan parks are also included. These are distinct from non-private dwellings which include hotels, boarding schools, boarding houses and institutions. Residents of non-private dwellings are excluded. 52 Usual residents excludes:
Data collection 53 Information for each household was collected using:
54 Sample copies of the above documents are included in the Survey of Income and Housing, User Guide, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 6553.0), expected to be released in August 2013. Sample design 55 The sample was designed to produce reliable estimates for broad aggregates for households resident in private dwellings aggregated for Australia, for each state and for the capital cities in each state and territory. More detailed estimates should be used with caution, especially for Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (see Appendix 5). 56 For the 2011-12 SIH, dwellings were selected through a stratified, multistage cluster design from the private dwelling framework of the ABS Population Survey Master Sample. Selections were distributed across a twelve month enumeration period so that the survey results are representative of income patterns across the year. Non-responding households 57 Of the selected dwellings there were 18,298 households in the scope of the survey. Of these, 3,729 did not respond at all to the questionnaire, or did not respond adequately. Of these 3,729 households, 49% were not able to be contacted during the survey enumeration and 32% were contacted but either refused to respond or were not able to respond. The remainder of these households included:
Partial response and imputation 58 Some households did not supply all the required information but supplied sufficient information to be retained in the sample. Such partial response occurs when:
59 In the first two cases, the data provided are retained and the missing data are imputed by replacing each missing value with a value reported by another person (referred to as the donor). 60 For the third type of partial response, the data for the persons who did respond are retained, and data for each missing person are provided by imputing data values equivalent to those of a fully responding person (the donor). 61 Donor records are selected by finding fully responding persons with matching information on various characteristics (such as state, sex, age, labour force status and income) as the person with missing information. As far as possible, the imputed information is an appropriate proxy for the information that is missing. Depending on which values are to be imputed, donors are randomly chosen from the pool of individual records with complete information for the block of questions where the missing information occurs. 62 The final sample includes 5,850 households which had at least one imputed value. For 29.4% of these households only a single value was missing, and most of these were for income from superannuation or interest and investments. Final sample 63 The final sample on which estimates were based is composed of persons for which all necessary information is available. The information may have been wholly provided at the interview (fully-responding) or may have been completed through imputation for partially responding households. Of the selected dwellings, there were 18,298 in the scope of the survey, of which 14,569 (80%) were included as part of the final estimates. 64 Table
Weighting 65 Weighting is the process of adjusting results from a sample survey to infer results for the total in scope population whether that be persons or households. To do this, a 'weight' is allocated to each sample unit (e.g. a person or a household). The weight is a value which indicates how many population units are represented by the sample unit. The first step in calculating weights for each unit is to assign an initial weight, which is the inverse of the probability of being selected in the survey. For example, if the probability of a household being selected in the survey was 1 in 600, then the household would have an initial weight of 600 (that is, it represents 600 households). 66 An adjustment is then made to the initial weights to ensure that seasonal variation is appropriately represented in survey estimates. After this initial adjustment, the sum of the weights of households in each quarter is in proportion to the length of the quarter (which align across the financial year with pension indexation dates rather than calendar quarters). 67 The initial weights are then calibrated to align with independent estimates of the population of interest, referred to as 'benchmarks'. Weights calibrated against population benchmarks ensure that the survey estimates conform to the independently estimated distribution of the population rather than to the distribution within the sample itself. 68 Most of the independent person and household benchmarks are based on demography estimates of numbers of persons and households in Australia. The benchmarks are adjusted to include persons and households residing in private dwellings only and to exclude persons living in very remote areas, and therefore do not, and are not intended to, match estimates of the Australian resident population published in other ABS publications. The demography estimates of persons (estimated resident population - ERP) and households used in SIH 2011-12 are built up from the 2006 Census. 69 In the 2011-12 SIH, as in 2007-08 and 2009-10, all persons in each household were assigned a weight. This differs from the 2005-06 SIH where children aged 0-14 years were not given separate weights, but household counts of the number of children were benchmarked to population totals. 70 The benchmarks used in the calibration of the final weights for the 2011-12 SIH were:
Estimation 71 Estimates produced from the survey are usually in the form of averages (e.g. average weekly income of couple households with dependent children), or counts (e.g. total number of households that own their dwelling or total number of persons living in households that own their own dwelling). For counts of households, the estimate was obtained by summing the weights for the responding households in the required group (e.g. those owning their own dwelling). For counts of persons, the household weights were multiplied by the number of persons in the household before summing. The SIH collects data on the number of people, including children, in each household but separate records with income and most detailed data were only collected for people 15 years and older. 72 Average income values are obtained in two different ways, depending on whether mean gross household income or mean equivalised disposable household income is being derived. Estimates of mean gross household income are calculated on a household weighted basis. They are obtained by multiplying the gross income of each household by the weight of the household, summing across all households and then dividing by the estimated number of households. For example, the mean gross household income of couple households with dependent children is the weighted sum of the gross income of each such household divided by the estimated number of those households. 73 Estimates of mean equivalised disposable household income are calculated on a person weighted basis. They are obtained by multiplying the equivalised disposable income of each household by the number of people in the household (including children) and by the weight of the household, summing across all households and then dividing by the estimated number of people in the population group. Appendix 3 illustrates the differences between mean gross household income calculated on a household weighted basis and mean equivalised disposable household income calculated on a person weighted basis. RELIABILITY OF ESTIMATES 74 The estimates provided in this publication are subject to two types of error, non-sampling and sampling error. Non-sampling error 75 Non-sampling error can occur in any collection, whether the estimates are derived from a sample or from a complete collection such as a census. Sources of non-sampling error include non-response, errors in reporting by respondents or recording of answers by interviewers and errors in coding and processing the data. 76 Non-sampling errors are difficult to quantify in any collection. However, every effort is made to reduce non-sampling error to a minimum by careful design and testing of the questionnaire, training of interviewers and data entry staff and editing and quality control procedures during data processing. 77 One of the main sources of non-sampling error is non-response by persons selected in the survey. Non-response occurs when people cannot or will not cooperate or cannot be contacted. Non-response can affect the reliability of results and can introduce a bias. The magnitude of any bias depends upon the level of non-response and the extent of the difference between the characteristics of those people who responded to the survey and those who did not. 78 The following methods were adopted to reduce the level and impact of non-response:
Sampling error 79 The estimates are based on a sample of possible observations and are subject to sampling variability. The estimates may therefore differ from the figures that would have been produced if information had been collected for all households. A measure of the sampling error for a given estimate is provided by the standard error, which may be expressed as a percentage of the estimate (relative standard error). Further information on sampling error is given in Appendix 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENT 80 ABS publications draw extensively on information provided freely by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated: without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905. SPECIAL DATA SERVICES 81 The ABS offers specialist consultancy services to assist clients with more complex statistical information needs. Clients may wish to have the unit record data analysed according to their own needs, or require tailored tables incorporating data items and populations as requested by them. Tables and other analytical outputs can be made available electronically or in printed form. However, as the level of detail or disaggregation increases with detailed requests, the number of contributors to data cells decreases. This may result in some requested information not being able to be released due to confidentiality or sampling variability constraints. All specialist consultancy services attract a service charge, and clients will be provided with a quote before information is supplied. For further information, contact ABS information consultants on 1300 135 070 from 9:00am to 4:30pm AEST Monday to Friday (International callers +61292684909). UNIT RECORD FILE 82 A basic confidentialised unit record file (CURF) from the 2011-12 SIH will be released on CD-ROM in August 2013. A more detailed (expanded) SIH CURF will also be available through the ABS Remote Access Data Laboratory. All clients wishing to access the SIH 2011-12 basic and expanded CURFs should refer to the How to Apply for Microdata web page. Clients should familiarise themselves with the User Manual: Responsible Use of ABS CURFs and other related microdata information which are available via the Microdata web pages, before applying for access through MiCRO. Australian universities 83 The ABS/Universities Australia Agreement provides participating universities with access to a range of ABS products and services. This includes access to CURF data. For further information, university clients should refer to the ABS/Universities Australia Agreement web page. Other clients 84 The Microdata Entry page on the ABS website contains links to microdata related information to assist users to understand and access microdata. For further information users should contact the microdata access team by email: microdata.access@abs.gov.au or telephone (02) 6252 7714 USER GUIDE 85 The User Guide includes information about the purpose of the survey, the concepts and contents, and the methods and procedures used to collect the data and derive the estimates. It also outlines the differences between the 2011-12 survey and earlier SIH surveys. Its purpose is to help users of the data understand the nature of the survey, and its potential to meet user needs. It also contains information for users of the SIH confidentialised unit record files (CURFs). The 2011-12 User Guide is expected to be released in August 2013. RELATED PRODUCTS 86 In addition to this publication, users may wish to refer to the following ABS products which relate to income. All publications can be downloaded free of charge from the ABS website, and are expected to be released in August 2013.
Microdata: Survey of Income and Housing - Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 6541.0.30.001) Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 4130.0) Household Wealth and Wealth Distribution, Australia 2011-12 (cat. no. 6554.0) 87 Earlier products relating to the SIH are listed below. All publications can be downloaded free of charge from the ABS website.
Microdata: Household Expenditure Survey and Survey of Income and Housing, Australia, 2009-10 (Second edition - incl. Fiscal Incidence Study) (cat. no. 6540.0) Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2009-10 (cat. no. 6530.0) Government Benefits, Taxes and Household Income, Australia 2009-10 (cat. no. 6537.0) Experimental Estimates of Imputed Rent, Australia, 2003-04 and 2005-06 (cat. no. 6525.0) Estimates of Personal Income for Small Areas, Time Series, 2009-10 (cat. no. 6524.0.55.002) Household Expenditure Survey, Detailed Expenditure Items, 2003-04 (cat. no. 6535.0.55.001) Housing Mobility and Conditions, Australia, 2007-08 (cat. no. 4130.0.55.002) 88 Other ABS publications relevant to income statistics are listed below. These publications can also be downloaded free of charge from the ABS website.
Average Weekly Earnings, Australia (cat. no. 6302.0) - quarterly Measuring Wellbeing: Frameworks for Australian Social Statistics, 2001 (cat. no. 4160.0) Measures of Australia's Progress, 2010 (cat. no. 1370.0) Information paper: Changes to ABS Measures of Employee Remuneration, Australia, 2006 (cat. no. 6313.0) Standards for Income Variables, 2010 (cat. no. 1287.0) - this is only available electronically and cannot be downloaded. 89 Users may also wish to refer to the following non-ABS products which relate to income.
Statistical Paper No. 10: Income support customers: A statistical overview 2011 (Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) link: under FaHCSIA Internet > About FaHCSIA > Publications & Articles > Research Publications > Statistical Paper series<www.fahcsia.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/statistical/Pages/default.aspx> Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
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