Experiencing Poverty: the Voices of Low-Income Australians - Stage 1 Research Report

This research report forms the first stage of a project designed to develop new indicators of poverty and disadvantage for Australia in the new millennium.

Despite the widespread dissatisfaction with existing poverty research in Australia, little research has been undertaken using either of the two main alternative paradigms: social exclusion and material deprivation.

This research project is drawing on the concepts of deprivation and social exclusion to develop indicators that can form the basis of a new approach to the conceptualisation, identification and measurement of poverty.

This project is addressing the following specific research questions:

1. • What do Australians in general, and low-income Australians in particular, regard as the essential components of a socially acceptable minimum standard of living and community participation today, for children, adults and households?

2. • Is there a broad consensus about what constitutes exclusion and deprivation, and if not, are there any systematic differences in the views held by different groups about these issues?

3. • What is the extent of social exclusion and material deprivation experienced by different groups of financially vulnerable people and what are the main contributing factors?

4. • What is the relationship between these necessities and the overlapping concepts of social exclusion, deprivation and income (or resource) poverty?

5. • What insights and policy implications follow from the findings?

Stage 1 of the Project

This report summarises the information that was produced from the focus group discussions conducted in Stage I of the project.

This stage involved discussions with participants in 13 focus groups throughout New South Wales and Victoria in cluding 10 groups of service users (agency clients) and 3 groups of service providers (agency staff).

The research reported here has been principally directed at addressing the first of the research questions i.e. What do Australians in general, and low-income Australians in particular, regard as the essential components of a socially acceptable minimum standard of living and community participation today, for children, adults and households?

The findings show that:

• The connections between housing, location and transport play a major role in determining the overall standard of living for many... Put simply, it was far easier to attain a decent standard of living in all of its dimensions on a platform consisting of adequate and well-located housing that facilitates connections into local community networks.
• Education, employment and financial resources were a second group of connected factors that affected people's standard of living. Most saw education as encompassing more than just formal education, to also include the acquisition of life skills such as communication and budgeting.
• A third group of connected factors were health and health care, support and social and civil engagement. Connections to local services and networks of support (family or community) were critical to providing formal and informal care and support. 
• Lack of information was a factor that emerged as preventing some people from accessing facilities, these being seen as ‘not for people like us’ and many young people saw lack of information as a barrier to such things as employment, education, health care and housing.
• Many of the younger participants bemoaned the lack of acknowledgment of the specific issues they face, with many feeling that they were often consulted but rarely listened to.
• People had a strong sense of the importance of being treated with respect and dignity, particularly by those working in the government agencies that can exert enormous control over their daily lives. Many related experiences of disrespectful and demeaning treatment that eroded their sense of identity and compounded the barriers they were trying to overcome.

Follow this link to the Social Policy Research Centre website to download the Experiencing Poverty Stage 1 Report (opens in a new browser window)

The research is funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage project grant and is being conducted at the Social Policy Research Centre with the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS), the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Mission Australia and Anglicare, Sydney, as Industry Partners.

For further information

Contact	:	Social Policy Research Centre University of NSW
Phone	:	(02) 9385 7800
Fax	:	(02) 9385 7838
Email	:	SPRC@unsw.edu.au

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http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au