Social and demographic change are key drivers of changing
demands for welfare services according to the Australian Institute
of Health and Welfare's flagship report Australia's Welfare
2005, released today.
As in years past, the report focuses on ageing and aged care;
disability and disability services, housing, homelessness,
community services labour force and expenditure. This year the
special thematic chapter, reflecting increasing policy and public
interest, is on children and youth.
AIHW Welfare Division Head Dr Diane Gibson said that in recent
years, much public attention has focused on the ageing of the
Australian population and its consequences for social policy.
'People aged 65 and over have indeed increased as a proportion
of the population from 10% in 1984 to 13% in 2004. But other social
and demographic changes are of at least equal importance. There is
increasing diversity of family and household types as well as
changes in patterns of labour force participation,' Dr Gibson
said.
The proportion of couple families where both parents were
employed increased from 51% in 1993 to 59% in 2003. The proportion
of families where neither parent is employed has declined from 11%
to 6% in the same period.
Children and youth remain an important component of the
Australian population pyramid. The number of children in Australia
increased rapidly until the mid-1970s, remained steady until the
1990s and has increased gradually since that time. It is important
to recognise that one third of the Australian population is aged
under 25.
Alongside these social and demographic changes, welfare services
have expanded and evolved.
Between 1991 and 2004 the number of Australian Government
supported child care places has more than doubled to over
530,000.
Residential aged care places increased from 82.2 per 1,000
people aged 70+ in 2001 to 84.2 in 2004. Taking community aged care
packages together with residential care places, the total ratio of
provision changed from 96.2 to 100.3 over the same period.
Disability support services were provided to 187,800 people
during 2003-04, with more than half of the expenditure under this
program used to fund accommodation support services.
Government funding for welfare services grew, in real terms, at
an average rate of 5.7% per year between 1998-99 and 2002-03, and
the most rapid growth by far was in welfare services for families
and children.
Finding affordable, secure and appropriate housing continues to
be a problem for lower income Australian households, as demand for
affordable housing has risen at the same time as the level of
public housing stock has dropped.
For people without secure housing, government funded homeless
services support over 150,000 people each year. However, demand for
accommodation still exceeds supply, with over half the adults and
children requesting accommodation turned away on an average night,'
Dr Gibson said.
30 November 2005
Further information: Dr Diane Gibson, AIHW, tel
61 2 6244 1190
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel 61 2 6244 1032, or refer to the media
highlights.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of Australia's Welfare
2005.