This study has been ongoing, where 17,000 people are surveyed each year to gauge changes in Australian society, called the HILDA Survey. The entire report is here.
Interestingly, despite the new gov's sudden pronouncements that welfare payments are now "unsustainable" and are growing at an alarming rate, this study doesn't doesn't confirm that assertion. In fact id does the exact opposite, saying welfare recipients are down over 4% since 2001.
The latest report has found 18.6 per cent of Australians aged 18 to 64 receive weekly welfare payments, down from 23 per cent of people in 2001.Oh but look over there, there's the PM laughing in a Texas hat :s
The drop in figures undermines the Federal Government's claim that too many people rely on Government handouts.
Associate Professor Roger Wilkins, the report's editor, says people cannot argue that a welfare emergency has recently emerged.
"Actually for about two decades now the overall extent of welfare reliance has actually been declining, ever so slowly, but nonetheless the direction has been in the right direction," he told ABC News Breakfast.
"The last few years following the GFC we saw a little bit of a rise again in welfare reliance, but broadly speaking the general trend is down.
"It is hard to reconcile that trend with the current public discourse, particularly coming from the Coalition Government, you certainly couldn't argue that there is a welfare emergency or welfare dependency emergency that's recently emerged," he said. more
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