Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

INCOME SOURCES

Definition

Income information relates primarily to regular/recurring cash income only.

Population

Information was collected about the personal income of all persons aged 15 years and over in the NHS.

Methodology

The selected adult within each household was also asked to provide information about the combined income of all other household members aged 15 years and over.

In cases where income was not reported, values were not imputed and missing data appears as 'not stated' or 'not known' values in survey output. If any contributing income item at the person level has a value of 'not stated' or 'not known', then totals derived from these items are also set to 'not stated' or 'not known'.

Gross cash income

Gross cash income refers to total cash (in dollar amounts) income from all sources before tax or anything else (except business expenses) is taken out. Respondents were asked to report.

• The gross cash income they currently received from wages or salary, a government pension or allowance, child support or maintenance, superannuation or annuity, workers' compensation or any other regular source. The period to which that reported income related could be recorded in weeks or months.
• The gross cash income they expected to receive from profit or loss from their own unincorporated business or share in a partnership; profit or loss from rental property; or dividends or interest in the current financial year. Provision was made to record nil income.

Income from all sources was combined to produce a total personal cash income, which is usually expressed for output in annual or weekly income ranges. Incomes in reported dollar amounts and in deciles are stored on the data file.

Total cash income at the household level is also available in dollar amounts (reported and equivalised) and deciles. These are further explained in the section of this chapter entitled 'Household, Family and Income Unit level characteristics'.

Comparability with 2007-08

Income is considered to be directly comparable between the 2011-12 and 2007-08 surveys. However in 2004-05, this data was only collected from persons aged 18 years and over. Care should be taken when making comparisons with the 2004-05 survey and the more recent 2011-12 and 2007-08 surveys that the same age groups are being used.

Sources of cash income

Wages and salaries

Respondents aged 15 years and over were asked whether they received income from wages and salaries (including from their own incorporated business), and if so, how much, and the period the amount covered. This topic included wages and salaries from all jobs, whether full-time or part-time; wages and salaries paid to a respondent from their own incorporated business; and commissions paid to sales staff. It excluded dividends received from shares in an incorporated business; and Newstart or Youth Allowance received under the Work for the Dole Scheme.

Government pensions, allowances and benefits

Respondents were then asked whether they currently received a government pension, allowance and benefit, and if so, were sequenced to a series of questions to determine the specific pension, benefit or allowance, as follows:

• Australian Age Pension;
• Service pension from the Department of Veteran's Affairs (excluding Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits (DFRDB);
• Disability Support Pension from Centrelink;
• Newstart Allowance;
• Carer Payment;
• Partner Allowance;
• Widow Allowance from Centrelink;
• Wife Pension;
• Sickness Allowance; or
• Special benefit.

Only one of these pensions, benefits or allowances could be selected. If any of the above were selected, the amount received and the period that amount covered were asked.

Respondents were then asked whether they currently received Family Tax Benefit (FTB) as regular payments from the Tax Office, and if so, the amount received and the period that amount covered. FTB is a Australian Government benefit to assist with the cost of raising children that consists of two components:

• Part A, the basic benefit, which is income assessed; and
• Part B, which gives assistance to sole parent families and to two parent families with one main income where one parent chooses to stay at home or to balance some paid work with caring for their children.

Both Part A and Part B were included in this topic.

FTB can be paid as fortnightly payments from the Family Assistance Office, as a lump sum payment from the Family Assistance Office after the end of the financial year, and as a lump sum through the tax system. Recipients of this last system can anticipate the lump sum by asking their employer to take less tax out of their wages during the year. Recipients can also choose to receive some of their entitlement in fortnightly payments and some as a lump sum after the end of the financial year. For the purposes of this question, only FTB income received as regular fortnightly payments was included.

Then, using a prompt card, respondents were asked whether they currently received any of the following, and if so, the amount received and the period that amount covered:

• Parenting Payment;
• Youth Allowance;
• Carer Allowance;
• War Widow's or Widower's Pension from the Department of Veteran's Affairs, including the Income Support Supplement;
• Disability Pension from the Department of Veteran's Affairs;
• Overseas government pension; or
• Any other government payment.

Other sources

Also using a prompt card, respondents were asked whether they currently received any income from the following sources, and if so, the amount received and the period that amount covered:

• child support or maintenance;
• superannuation/annuity/private pension; or,
• workers' compensation.

Respondents were then asked to report:

• the expected profit or loss for the financial year from their own unincorporated business or share in a partnership (excluding wages/salary drawn from own limited liability company);
• the expected profit or loss for the financial year from rental property;
• expected dividends or interest for the financial year, including dividends from own limited liability business as well as other companies, but excluding bonus share values received with or in lieu of dividends; and
• current income from any other source.

Where the respondent was a registered dealer, income from share trading was recorded as business income. In other cases, income from share trading was recorded as 'other regular income'.

Persons who reported income from their own unincorporated business, share in a partnership, or rental property were asked to report the total amount received from these sources in the last financial year (before tax but after business expenses). 'Don't know' and 'refusal' options were allowed.

Output classifications

For output, sources of income are classified as follows:

• wage or salary;
• profit or loss from own unincorporated business or share in partnership;
• any government pension or allowance;
• other cash income;
  • profit or loss from rental property;
  • dividends or interest;
  • child support or maintenance;
  • superannuation/annuities;
  • workers' compensation; and
  • other cash income nec.

Type of pensions received are also available for output. For more details, please refer to the survey data item list available from the downloads tabs of the Australian Health Survey (cat. no. 4364.0.5.001).

Main source of cash income

Main source of cash income is derived for the items above, and is available as a separate output item.

Household income

The selected adult was asked to report the combined income details of all persons aged 15 years and over in their household. Two question were used, asking how much income in total was received from all sources, and the period that total amount covered. Don't know and refusal options were allowed. The approach used in the survey relies on the selected adult's knowledge of the income of other household members, and their willingness to report information about other household members which they may see as sensitive. Two output categories were derived into deciles:

• equivalised income of households; and
• gross weekly cash income of households.

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