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It is the Commonwealth Government (with income maintenance), the Tasmanian Government and non-government welfare organisations that, in the main, respond to community needs.

As well as cash income, government programs also help those with low incomes to meet payments for housing through rent assistance, and for a range of goods and services through pensioner concession and health cards. There are also a number of services aimed at helping people in personal and social hardship. Other types of programs aim to provide assistance with employment and advocacy to people with disabilities.

Throughout the 1990s and now into the 21st century, each of these providers has seen an increase in demand for their services. One consequence has been a movement towards increased cooperation between government and private sector providers in an effort to meet the changing needs of the community.

SUMMARY OF COMMUNITY SERVICES ACTIVITY - Tasmania
		Unit	Period	Tas.
Aged Care
	Residential aged care places utilised	no.	as at 30 June 2003	3,896
	Community Aged Care Package recipients	no.	as at 30 June 2003	741
Children and families
	Children aged less than 12 years using formal child care only	no.	June 2002	10,800
	Children to 18 years under guardianship	no.	as at 30 June 2003	275
	Family group conferences	no.	2002-03	58
	Children in out of home care services	no.	as at 30 June 2003	468
	Domestic Violence Crisis Service - new clients	no.	2002-03	1,227
	Occasions of service in child health centres	no.	2002-03	123,131
Mental health services
	Inpatient units, separations	no.	2002-03	2,395
	Community and residential units, total active clients	no.	as at 30 June 2003	4,468
Disability services
	Clients receiving accommodation support	no.	as at 30 June 2003	719
Oral health services
	Occasions of service - children	no.	2002-03	72,129
	Occasions of service - adult, general	no.	2002-03	3,011
Palliative care services
	Clients accessing community activity services	no.	2002-03	4,063
	Inpatients, average length of stay (days)	no.	2002-03	10.9
Voluntary work
	Number of volunteers	no.	2000	115,600
	Median weekly hours worked	no.	2000	1.5
Income support payments
	Age Pension recipients	no.	June 2002	49,266
	Service Pension recipients	no.	June 2002	11,778
	Disability Support Pension recipients	no.	June 2002	22,991
	Newstart Allowance recipients	no.	June 2002	20,257
	Family Tax Benefit recipients	no.	June 2002	83,025
	Parenting Payment recipients	no.	June 2002	20,094
Housing assistance
	Public housing - occupants	no.	as at June 2003	23,472
	Public housing - households	no.	as at June 2003	11,624
Community services industry
	Expenditure on direct community service activities	$m	1999-2000	318.4
	Organisations	no.	1999-2000	317
Source: Department of Health and Ageing; Child Care, Australia, June 2002 (cat. no. 4402.0); Department of Health and Human Services; Voluntary Work, Australia (cat. no. 4441.0); Centrelink; Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Annual Report 2001-02; Housing Tasmania; and Community Services, Australia, 1999-2000 (cat. no. 8696.0).