Welfare Entry and Exit after Marital Separation among Australian Mothers

Australian administrative data is used to examine patterns of welfare receipt for up to 5 and a half years after marital separation. We examine relationship status, income support and other incomes both before and after separation with a particular focus on the routes into and out of welfare receipt...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Economic record 2018-12, Vol.94 (307), p.405-423
Main Authors: Bradbury, Bruce, Zhu, Anna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Convergence
Earnings
Family size
Income support
Marital separation
Mothers
Welfare
Welfare reform
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Australian administrative data is used to examine patterns of welfare receipt for up to 5 and a half years after marital separation. We examine relationship status, income support and other incomes both before and after separation with a particular focus on the routes into and out of welfare receipt. Exits associated with new partnering are compared with those likely to be due to earnings increases. We find substantial volatility in relationships, with around a third of separations being only temporary (re‐partnering with the original partner). Focusing on the permanent separations, we find a convergence in the welfare receipt rates of initially well‐off and poor mothers, which is then slowly unwound as more advantaged mothers leave welfare at a faster rate. The channels of welfare exit (finding a new partner versus exiting welfare while remaining single) are associated with different characteristics. Family size is an equally important predictor of exit rates as the age of the youngest child.
ISSN:0013-0249
1475-4932
DOI:10.1111/1475-4932.12427