Abstract
IntroductionAustralians who are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) and receive income support span a wide spectrum of working ages. Australian research has concentrated on NEETs aged 15–29 years, in line with international standards. This paper investigates extending the NEET concept to include all working age persons 15–64 years and the value added to welfare policy through analysis of a new linked dataset.MethodsAn observational study design was implemented with individuals aged 15-64 years recorded as receiving Department of Social Services (DSS) income support payments from September 2011 being linked with Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data from August 2011 to create a linked dataset for analysis. Descriptive analyses were undertaken of NEET status by Census socio-demographic characteristics, and we modelled the adjusted likelihood of NEET status by Census demographics.ResultsSome 1.37 million or 45.2% of linked DSS payment recipients qualified as NEET. Of NEETs, more than twice as many were female, nearly half were aged 45–64 years, and under 1-in-5 were aged 15–29 years. Multivariate analyses showed that NEETs were more likely to be older, have low educational attainment, have a disability, and to be Indigenous.ConclusionsYoung NEETs aged 15–29 years represented less than 20% of linked DSS payment recipients classified as NEET, suggesting that standard NEETs reporting neglects information on around 80% of the working age NEET population in Australia. Combined with other demographic insights, these results have implications for welfare policy, and indicate a wider range of demographics should be considered under the NEET classification. This may also have implications for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reporting.
Highlights
Introduction Australians who are Not inEmployment, Education or Training (NEET) and receive income support span a wide spectrum of working ages
Multivariate analyses showed that NEETs were more likely to be older, have low educational attainment, have a disability, and to be Indigenous
Young NEETs aged 15–29 years represented less than 20% of linked Department of Social Services (DSS) payment recipients classified as NEET, suggesting that standard NEETs reporting neglects information on around 80% of the working age NEET population in Australia
Summary
Employment, Education or Training (NEET) and receive income support span a wide spectrum of working ages. This paper investigates extending the NEET concept to include all working age persons 15–64 years and the value added to welfare policy through analysis of a new linked dataset. Persons of working age who are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) and who receive income support payments from government welfare services are a diverse population of people which is an ongoing challenge to social and fiscal policy across the developed world. Given the lasting influence of a young person’s formative years in education on later joblessness and social exclusion, this focus on youth is critical, and important to retain as a key strategy to reducing long-term welfare dependency [4]. This paper explores that premise through analyses of a unique linked administrative data set
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