Prosperity for All? How Low-Income Families have fared in the Boom Times

There is a lack of up to date data about the characteristics of families with children living in financial disadvantage in Australia, trends in these characteristics since the late 1990s, and the effects of federal budget changes on low income families with children. This leaves a gap in public debate on child hardship and policies to reduce it. This study aims to fill that gap by profiling families with incomes in the bottom 20 per cent of the income distribution of all families with children. We present an assessment of how these families have fared over the past six years compared with other families, as well as examining the effects of social security and tax policies on their real incomes and relative incomes over this period, including the effects of the major family payment and tax changes in this year's federal budget.