INCOME SOURCES
Definition
Income information relates primarily to regular/recurring cash income only.
'Gross cash income' refers to total cash (in dollar amounts) income from all sources before tax or anything else (except business expenses) is taken out.
Population
Information on personal income was collected for all selected persons aged 15 years and over in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS).
In addition, information was collected from the household spokesperson for all persons in the household aged 15 years and over in the NATSIHS (non-selected persons only) and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NATSINPAS).
Methodology
Household income
Although collected in slightly different ways, household income was collected in both the NATSIHS and NATSINPAS, and is also available as part of the Core data file.
In both surveys, the household spokesperson was asked to provide income information of all household members aged 15 years and over (in NATSIHS it was all non-selected household members). The household spokesperson was asked for the sources of each person’s income, the combined income total from all sources, and the period that total amount covered (e.g. weekly, fortnightly etc.). In NATSIHS, personal income was also collected from the selected respondents aged 15 years and over and contributed to the overall household income.
To calculate household income, all individual incomes (including incomes collected from personal interviews in NATSIHS) are combined and a total produced.
In cases where income was not reported for one or more household members, values were applied if sufficient information was available to determine the income, otherwise missing data appears as 'not stated' or 'not known' values in survey output. In NATSIHS, if any contributing income item at the person level has a value of 'not stated' or 'not known', then household totals derived from these items are also set to 'not stated' or 'not known'.
Total (gross) cash income at the household level, in weekly dollar amounts is available for:
Both of these were also derived into deciles.
The cut-offs for the decile items were calculated using combined data from the 2011-12 National Health Survey (NHS) and National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NNPAS) and had an adjustment applied to account for Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases from the NHS/NNPAS enumeration period of 2011-12 and the NATSIHS enumeration period of 2012-13. These are further explained in the section of this chapter
Household and Family characteristics. Decile cut-offs tables are available in
Appendix 6: Income deciles.
Personal income
While the individual incomes for each household member 15 years and over were collected in NATSIHS and NATSINPAS, the sole purpose for their collection was for producing household income. The standard set of questions used to collect personal income was only part of the interviews of selected persons aged 15 years and over in the NATSIHS. As a result, personal income is only available from NATSIHS.
Non-remote respondents aged 15 years and over were asked to report:
- The gross cash income they currently received from wages or salary, a government pension or allowance, child support or maintenance, superannuation or annuity, workers' compensation, or any other regular source. The period to which that reported income related could be recorded as a week, fortnight, four weeks, calendar month, year or other period.
- The gross cash income they expected to receive from profit or loss from their own unincorporated business or share in a partnership, profit or loss from rental property, or dividends or interest in the current financial year. Provision was made to record nil income.
Remote respondents aged 15 years and over were asked to report:
- The gross cash income they currently received from Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP), wages or salary, a family government payment, a government pension or allowance, or any other regular source. The period to which that reported income related could be recorded as a week, fortnight, four weeks, calendar month, year or other period.
Income from all sources was combined to produce a total personal cash income, which is usually expressed for output in weekly income ranges. Incomes in reported dollar amounts and in deciles are stored on the data file.
Non-remote respondents were asked whether they received income from wages and salaries (including from their own incorporated business), and if so, how much, and the period the amount covered. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed. This topic included wages and salaries from all jobs, whether full-time or part-time; wages and salaries paid to a respondent from their own incorporated business; and commissions paid to sales staff. It excluded dividends received from shares in an incorporated business; and Newstart or Youth Allowance received under the Work for the Dole Scheme.
Non-remote respondents were then asked whether they currently received a government pension, allowance and benefit, and if so, were sequenced to a series of questions to determine the specific pension, benefit or allowance, as follows:
- Australian Age Pension
- Service pension from the Department of Veteran's Affairs (excluding Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits (DFRDB)
- Disability Support Pension from Centrelink
- Newstart Allowance
- Carer Payment
- Partner Allowance
- Widow Allowance from Centrelink
- Wife Pension
- Sickness Allowance
- Special benefit.
Only one of these pensions, benefits or allowances could be selected. If any of the above were selected, the amount received and the period that amount covered were asked. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
Non-remote respondents who received a government pension, allowance or benefit were then asked whether they currently received the following:
- Family Tax Benefit as a regular payment from the Family Assistance Office
- Parenting Payment
- Youth Allowance
- Carer Allowance
- War Widow's or Widower's Pension from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, including Income Support Supplement
- Disability Pension from the Department of Veterans' Affairs
- Overseas government pension
- Any other government payment.
More than one response was allowed. If any of the above were selected, the total amount received and the period that amount covered were asked. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed. If Family Tax Benefit (FTB) was selected a further question about the amount received from this benefit alone and the period that amount covered was asked. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
FTB can be paid as fortnightly payments from the Family Assistance Office, as a lump sum payment from the Family Assistance Office after the end of the financial year, and as a lump sum through the tax system. Recipients of this last system can anticipate the lump sum by asking their employer to take less tax out of their wages during the year. Recipients can also choose to receive some of their entitlement in fortnightly payments and some as a lump sum after the end of the financial year. For the purposes of this question, only FTB income received as regular fortnightly payments was included.
Using a prompt card, non-remote respondents were asked whether they currently received any income from the following sources, and if so, the amount received and the period that amount covered:
- child support or maintenance
- superannuation, an annuity or private pension
- workers' compensation.
More than one response was allowed. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
Non-remote respondents were then asked to report:
- the expected profit or loss for the financial year from rental property
- the expected profit or loss for the financial year from their own unincorporated business or share in a partnership (excluding wages/salary drawn from own limited liability company)
- expected dividends from shares for the financial year, including dividends from own limited liability business as well as other companies, but excluding bonus share values received with or in lieu of dividends
- expected interest for the financial year
- current income from any other source and the period that amount covered.
'Don't know' and 'refusal' options were allowed.
Where the respondent was a registered dealer, income from share trading was recorded as business income. In other cases, income from share trading was recorded as 'other regular income'.
Remote respondents were asked whether they receive any money from CDEP, and if so, how much, and the period the amount covered. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
Remote respondents were then asked whether they receive income from wages or salaries, and if so, how much, and the period the amount covered. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
Next, remote respondents were asked whether they receive the government family payment, and if so, how much, and the period the amount covered. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
Remote respondents were then asked whether they receive any money from any other government pension or allowance. If so, they were asked to name the pension or allowance, followed by how much, and the period the amount covered. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
Lastly, remote respondents were asked whether they receive any money from any other regular source, and if so, how much, and the period the amount covered. 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options for income amount were allowed.
Sources of income for non-remote respondents are classified as follows:
- wage or salary
- profit or loss from own unincorporated business or share in partnership
- any government pension or allowance (including Family Tax Benefit if received as a payment from Centrelink)
- profit or loss from rental property
- dividends or interest
- child support or maintenance
- superannuation or annuity
- workers' compensation
- other regular source.
Sources of income for all respondents required a number of sources to be combined with 'Other regular source' as the sources were not asked directly of remote respondents. This also included CDEP for remote respondents as the non-remote respondents were not asked about CDEP income directly. The sources for all respondents are classified as follows:
- wage or salary
- any government pension or allowance (including Family Tax Benefit if received as a payment from Centrelink)
- other regular source (incl. CDEP).
'Main source of income' and 'Type of government pension or allowance received' are also available for output.
Total cash income at the person level is available as a continuous variable as well as a derived decile version. Similar to household income, the cut-offs for the decile item was calculated using the National Health Survey (NHS) data (as personal income was not collected in NNPAS the combined NHS/NNPAS sample could not be used) and had an adjustment applied to account for Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases from the NHS enumeration period of 2011-12 and the NATSIHS enumeration period of 2012-13. Deciles are further explained in
Household and Family characteristics and the cut-offs used are available in
Appendix 6: Income deciles.
Data items
The data items and related output categories for this topic are available in Excel spreadsheet format from the
Downloads page of this product.
Interpretation
Points to be considered in interpreting this topic include the following:
- The approach used in the surveys relies on the household spokesperson’s knowledge of the income of other household members, and their willingness to report that information, which they may see as sensitive. This also applies to selected person's report of their personal income.
- Collection of incomes as part of the household spokesperson interview only allowed positive incomes (commencing at 0) to be reported. As such, only positive household incomes are possible to report from NATSINPAS and the Core data files. However, on the NATSIHS data file household income data includes negative incomes due to negative incomes being reportable as part of the personal income data collected from selected persons. These negative incomes were changed to 0 as part of producing the Core data file.
- NATSIHS was run during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 financial years, so respondents will be referring to the financial year related to their date of interview.
- Any non-remote respondent whose income is from CDEP will be categorised as 'Other regular source' due to non-remote respondents not being asked about CDEP income specifically. Furthermore, remote respondents whose income is from their own unincorporated business or share in partnership, rental property, dividends or interest, child support or maintenance, superannuation of annuity, or workers' compensation will be categorises to 'Other regular source' due to remote respondents not being asked about these sources of income specifically. As a result, an under reporting of income from these income sources may have occurred due to lack of prompting for alternative income sources.
Comparability with 2004-05 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS)
Data for common income items are considered directly comparable between the 2004-05 NATSIHS and 2012-13 NATSIHS. The different collection methods between the non-remote and remote survey are consistent with the approach taken in 2004-05, however, the layout of the questions for both surveys has changed slightly but the collected data is consistent.
Comparability with 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS)
Data for common income items are considered directly comparable between the 2008 NATSISS and 2012-13 NATSIHS. In the NATSISS, the layout of the questions is similar to the remote NATSIHS survey, however NATSISS is also similar to the non-remote NATSIHS survey as it has more comprehensive collection of government pensions or allowances information and other sources. Thus the remote income from NATSISS may be more accurate than the remote income from NATSIHS which may have under reported income due to less comprehensive income questions.
Comparability with 2012-13 Australian Health Survey (AHS)
Data for common items are considered comparable between the 2011-12 AHS and 2012-13 AATSIHS. However, differences in collection methods should be noted. The AHS collected household income as a grouped income amount for all persons in the household aged 15 years and over (although, similar to NATSIHS, the AHS collected personal income from selected persons and this was added to the grouped income amount), compared to the individual income approach used in AATSIHS. For AHS, household income was collected as part of the selected adult interview, which, unlike the household spokesperson method used in AATSIHS, may not be the best person to provide this information.
For personal income, the reduced number of questions for remote respondents in the NATSIHS may result in an under reporting of income, although likely to be minimal, due to lack of prompting for alternative income sources. This will also affect comparisons of income sources and it is recommended that remote data is not utilised for comparisons of this kind.
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