Housing assistance in Australia

Households at 30 June

For public housing, SOMIH and Indigenous community housing, households at 30 June are defined as those for which tenancies either have not ended or ended on 30 June of the reference period.

For community housing, for years prior to 2023–24, households at 30 June were those that had not ended by 30 June of the reference period. From 2023–24 onwards, the definition was updated to include households where the tenancy ended on 30 June.

The counts of occupants presented in this report reflect those reported in ongoing tenancies at 30 June of the reference period.

Low-income households

For years prior to 2011–12, low-income households were defined as those with an income equivalent at or below 100% of the government income support benefits at the pensioner rate.

From 2011–12, the low-income cut-off uses equivalised gross income to classify a household as low-income. Equivalised gross income is used as it allows comparison of the relative economic wellbeing of households of different size and composition, with the equivalised gross income being an indicator of the economic resources available to a standardised household. (If a jurisdiction is unable to supply gross household income, then assessable household income will be used instead.) If a household has a negative disposable income, it will have an equivalised gross income of zero.

ABS provides tables of gross equivalised income by jurisdiction and capital city / balance of state calculated from the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). Households that fall in the bottom two quintiles (that is, the bottom 40%) of equivalised gross income will be classified as low-income households.

The SIH was conducted every 2 years which means that cut-offs are not updated each financial year. The most recent publicly available data for SIH is the 2019–20 SIH.

Time waited for social housing allocation 

The method used to calculate the amount of time waited for social housing allocation varies depending on household priority status.

For more information on time waited for social housing allocation, see Waitlists .

Suitability of dwelling

In Australia, the suitability of a household’s dwelling size is commonly measured using the Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS). Broadly, the CNOS measures suitability based on whether a dwelling has enough bedrooms for the size and composition of a household (see criteria below).

CNOS provides information on how suitable social housing dwellings were for households living in social housing on 30 June of the reference year.

Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS)

The CNOS measure assesses the suitability of a dwelling for a household according to the following criteria:

• No more than 2 people shall share a bedroom.
• Parents or couples may share a bedroom.
• Children under 5 years, either of the same sex or opposite sex, may share a bedroom.
• Children under 18 years of the same sex may share a bedroom.
• A child aged 5–17 should not share a bedroom with a child under 5 of the opposite sex.
• Single adults 18 years and over, and any unpaired children require a separate bedroom.

Based on the CNOS standard, housing utilisation will be described as the following:

• Suitable or adequate: when it meets the CNOS household bedroom requirements.
• Underutilised: when it has 2 or more bedrooms surplus to the CNOS bedroom requirement for the household.
• Overcrowded: when it requires at least 1 more bedroom.

Source: Statistics Canada 2021

For more information on the CNOS, see AIHW Metadata Online Registry (METEOR).

Although this measure is useful for indicating overcrowding in dwellings, it does not necessarily reflect a household’s experience of overcrowding. This is because CNOS does not consider cultural differences in living and sleeping arrangements (Dockery et al. 2022). As such, its classification of overcrowding may not necessarily match the experiences of Indigenous and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse households.

Financial assistance

Financial assistance is one of the main types of housing assistance provided to low-income households in Australia. Housing costs are often one of the largest expenses for low-income households. Governments offer various forms of financial support to help people afford housing costs, such as assisting with the cost of rent and accessing home loan finance.

Within this report, information on financial assistance related to rental costs and home purchases is based on data as at the last Friday in June in the reference year (for CRA) and on 30 June of the reference year (for PRA and HPA). It provides insight into the scale and effectiveness of certain financial assistance programs.

Commonwealth Rent Assistance

CRA is a non-taxable payment, which is generally paid fortnightly to eligible recipients as part of a recipient’s primary payment rate. It is available to eligible recipients who rent in the private rental market or community housing. To be eligible, families or individuals must qualify for: an eligible social security payment; more than the base rate of Family Tax Benefit Part A; or an eligible veterans’ income support payment; and pay or be liable to pay more than a specified rent threshold.

Qualification for CRA is assessed as part of the process for claiming a social security payment and it forms part of the rate of that payment. For information about CRA eligibility, see Department of Social Services.

CRA is paid at 75 cents for every dollar above a minimum rental threshold until a maximum rate (or ceiling) is reached. The minimum threshold and maximum rates vary according to the household or family situation, including the number of children.

Certain social housing tenants are eligible for CRA, such as those living in community housing or Indigenous community housing and, in some states and territories, state owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH). CRA is not payable to public housing tenants as state and territory housing authorities already subsidise rent for these tenants.

People who rent housing from community housing providers may be eligible for CRA. Community housing providers typically charge rent as a proportion of assessable household income, plus 100 per cent of CRA, which is retained by the community housing provider. This can benefit community housing tenants by helping providers to maintain the quality and expand the supply of dwellings.

In September 2024, CRA maximum rates were increased by 10 per cent to help relieve rental cost pressures for recipient households. This followed a 15 per cent increase to CRA maximum rates in September 2023.

The COVID-19 pandemic

The jobless rate in Australia increased as the COVID‑19 pandemic severely affected the Australian economy (Parliamentary Library 2020a). In the months leading to the COVID‑19 pandemic, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was around 5.0% (from December 2019 to March 2020). By July 2020, it peaked at 7.4% – the highest in over 20 years (ABS 2025). The economic and social impact of COVID-19 affected many Australians. However, the rate of unemployment has declined sharply since then, falling below the pre-pandemic level to 4.7% in July 2021, and to 3.6% in February 2023. In the 2024–25 financial year, the average seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to around 4.1% (ABS 2026). For more information on unemployment rates see Labour Force, Australia.

In response to COVID‑19 and the associated increase in unemployment, the Australian Government made changes to social security payments from March 2020. Broadly, these changes meant that more people were eligible for and received social security payments throughout 2020 and 2021 (Parliamentary Library 2020b).

In 2020, the number of CRA income unit recipients and CRA expenditure peaked due to high unemployment and the temporary changes to social security that allowed more people to access income support during the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Income units

An income unit comprises a single person (with or without dependent children) or a couple (with or without dependent children) receiving a social security or family assistance payment and expected to share financial resources. Single social security recipients living together in the same household are regarded as separate income units. One member of a couple is treated as the reference person for the recipient household, based on the type of payment they receive. The order of priority is Pensions; Allowances; Family Tax Benefit (FTB). Type of income unit information only available from 2016.

Confidentiality

To protect individuals’ privacy, all cells including any totals and subtotals have been rounded to the nearest 5, values from 1 to 7 are rounded to 5. Zero cells are actual zeros. This may result in non-additivity for some totals. Caution should be taken in re-calculating totals from rounded data, as this may compound the effects of rounding.

Rental stress

Many renters, especially those with low to moderate incomes, struggle to pay for high rents without compromising or sacrificing on other basic living costs (ABS 2022). Rental stress is about whether rental housing is affordable for these households (AHURI 2019).

CRA and rental stress

In Australia, rental affordability is commonly measured by the level of rental stress faced by the household. This report focusses on rental stress amongst CRA recipients, defined as a CRA income unit spending more than 30% of gross income on rent.

For CRA income units, the proportion of income paid on rent is calculated as: (weekly rent–weekly CRA)/weekly gross income. Weekly gross income includes reported private income (for FTB-only income units estimated income is used) plus regular income support and family payments (excluding CRA) paid to the income unit. Income support paid includes the Coronavirus Supplement paid to the income unit. Family Tax Benefit paid to the income unit does not include the end of year supplement.

'In rental stress – excluding CRA' indicates the income units that would be in rental stress if they were not receiving CRA. This is theoretical as all income units included in the data are receiving CRA, but this calculation provides insight into how much CRA reduced rental stress among income units receiving CRA. The proportion of income paid on rent is calculated as: weekly rent/weekly gross income.

'In rental stress – including CRA' indicates the income units that are in rental stress while receiving CRA. The proportion of income paid on rent is calculated as: (weekly rent–weekly CRA)/weekly gross income.

Dwelling and household location