Budget 2005-06 at a Glance 

(specifies only FaCS portfolio funding in cross-portfolio measures)

• Assistance for Families
• Carers Measures
• Welfare to Work
• Assistance for Women
• Housing Assistance
• Seniors Support
• Strong and Resilient Communities
• Keeping our Youth on Track
• Updated Commonwealth/State Negotiations
• Ensuring Benefits Go To Those In Need
• Other Measures
• Footnotes

• FaCS Budget 2005-06 at a Glance [PDF 119kB]
• FaCS Budget 2005-06 at a Glance [RTF 74kB]

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Assistance for Families

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Increase in Maximum Rate Family Tax Benefit Part A Income Threshold 2	–	0.9	249.6	249.2	249.4	749.0
Family Assistance - A Negotiated Payment Option to Reduce Overpayments	–	1.5	1.5	1.4	1.5	5.9
Family Assistance - Assistance to Families at Risk of Overpayment	0.1	5.2	3.2	–	–	8.5
Family Assistance - Automatically Updating Income Estimates	–	3.8	10.2	2.9	1.7	18.6
Family Assistance - Improving Debt Recovery	–	2.8	5.0	1.7	1.8	11.4
Family Assistance - Maintenance Income Credit	–	7.6	16.2	15.3	15.7	54.8
Family Assistance - Using Reconciliation Top-up Payments and Tax Refunds to Offset Outstanding Family Assistance Debts	–	2.8	1.1	0.4	0.4	4.7
Maternity Payment - Extending the Age Limit on Adopted Children	0.5	2.2	1.2	1.2	1.5	6.6
A New Family Law System	–	16.3	26.9	33.9	40.0	117.1

Carers Measures

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Carers - Payment of One-Off Carer Bonus	–	313.7	3.2	–	–	316.9
Carer Allowance - Backdating Provisions	–	0.8	-34.7	-36.4	-37.3	-107.6
Carer Allowance (Child) - Changes to the Lists of Recognised Disabilities	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	3.4

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Welfare to Work

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Welfare to Work - Enhance Child Care Arrangements to Support Work Participation	–	25.7	41.6	80.5	118.7	266.4
Welfare to Work - Increasing Participation of Parents	–	–	2.5	7.1	11.3	21.0
Welfare to Work - Increasing Participation of People with a Disability	–	–	11.0	18.3	26.0	55.3

Assistance for Women

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Women's Safety Agenda 3	–	15.2	15.9	15.5	16.1	62.7
Women's Leadership and Development Programme	–	4.1	3.6	3.6	3.6	15.0

Housing Assistance

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Addressing Indigenous Needs - Healthy Indigenous Housing - Continuation	–	24.9	25.4	26.0	26.6	102.8
National Homelessness Strategy - Extension	–	2.4	2.4	2.5	2.7	10.0

Seniors Support

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Great Southern Rail - Reimbursement of Concessionary Fares 4	–	–	–	–	–	–
Accommodation Bonds - Exemption from the Assets Tests 5	1.6	9.9	10.8	12.9	15.1	50.2

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Strong and Resilient Communities

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
National Research Strategy to Help Prevent Problem Gambling - Continuation 6	–	–	–	–	–	–
Community Organisations - One-Off Grants	0.6	–	–	–	–	0.6

Keeping our Youth on Track

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Mentor Marketplace Programme - Extension	–	2.7	3.0	2.9	3.3	12.0
Transition to Independent Living Allowance - Continuation 7	–	–	–	–	–	–

Updated Commonwealth/State Negotiations

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Commonwealth Seniors Health Card Concessions - Withdraw Offer to State and Territory Governments	–	-83.7	-83.7	-83.7	-83.7	-334.9
State Seniors Card Holders - Withdraw the National Reciprocal Transport Concessions Offer	-5.8	-6.2	-6.4	-6.4	-6.4	-31.1

Ensuring Benefits Go To Those In Need

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Debt Prevention Research and Development 8	–	5.0	0.6	–	–	5.7
Age Pension - Detection and Prevention of Incorrect Payments Arising from Overseas Income	–	0.9	-26.8	-23.1	-13.2	-62.1
Age Pension and Service Pension Registers - Improved Integrity 9	–	-27.0	-2.3	-2.4	-2.5	-34.3
Income Support Payments - Maintain Funding for Compliance Checks 10	–	–	–	–	–	–

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Other Measures

		Budget	Forward Estimates			Measure
	2004-05 $m	2005-06 $m	2006-07 $m	2007-08 $m	2008-09 $m	Total $m 1
Addressing Indigenous Needs - Fringe Benefits Tax Supplementation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Organisations - Extension 11	–	–	–	–	–	–
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation 2007	–	–	0.2	–	–	0.2
Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	3.4
Efficiency Dividend - Increase in the Rate from 1 Per Cent to 1.25 Per Cent 12	–	-4.3	-8.7	-13.0	-13.1	-39.0
Migration Programme - Increase of up to 20,000 Skilled Places	–	12.6	38.8	67.2	98.2	216.7
Migration Programme - Two Stage Skilled Designated Area Sponsored Visa	–	–	-1.3	-7.7	-17.9	-26.9
Targeted Assistance Programmes - Maintain Funding 13	–	–	–	–	–	–
Working Age Payments - Extension of Waiting Periods	–	0.2	-9.0	-12.0	-12.3	-33.1

The Australian Government has also implemented a range of election commitments since the 2004-05 Budget. These include:

• Assistance to Seniors Package totalling $1,018.0 million over five years for the payment of the Seniors Concession Allowance (to holders of a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card) and the Utilities Allowance (to Age Pension recipients);
• Increased Child Care Assistance for grandparents who care for children, totalling $110.3 million over five years;
• Increased opportunities for Carer Payment recipients to undertake work, study and training, totalling $34.9 million over five years;
• Additional funding for the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy totalling $124.9 million over five years for the Communities for Children, Local Answers and Volunteer Small Equipment Grants programmes;
• Introduction of a Family Tax Benefit Part B Supplement of $300 per annum, totalling $2.0 billion over five years, which commenced on 1 January 2005 with a half year entitlement of $150; and
• Strengthening Tasmania Package totalling $0.6 million over five years, assisting community organisations to better provide services in their community and providing funding to Volunteering Tasmania Inc. to produce a volunteer's kit.

The Australian Government also provided funding of $7.2 million over five years in the Family and Community Services portfolio to assist Australians directly affected by the South Asian Tsunami in December 2004.

1. Some totals are affected by rounding.
2. This Measure also includes further funding for the Department of Health and Ageing of $327.1 million over the three years
   2006-07 to 2008-09 and for the Australian Taxation Office of $39.3 million over the three years 2006-07 to 2008-09.
3. This Measure also includes further funding for the Department of Health and Ageing of $12.6 million over four years and for the Health Insurance Commission of $0.4 million over four years (including $0.1 million capital in 2005-06).
4. The Government will continue to fund this programme for a further four years, providing $30.2 million from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Provision for this funding has already been included in the forward estimates.
5. This Measure also includes funding for the Department of Veterans' Affairs of $11.6 million over the five years 2004-05 to
   2008-09 (including $0.4 million in capital over the two years 2004-05 and 2005-06) and the Department of Health and Ageing of $4.4 million over the four years 2005-06 to 2008-09.
6. The Government will continue to fund this programme for a further four years, providing $2.4 million from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Provision for this funding has already been included in the forward estimates.
7. The Government will continue to fund this programme for a further four years, providing $10.6 million from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Provision for this funding has already been included in the forward estimates.
8. This Measure also includes funding for the Department of Veterans' Affairs of $0.4 million (including $0.3 million in capital) in 2004-05 to 2006-07 and savings in 2005-06 to 2006-07 for the Department of Education, Science and Training of $0.5 million and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations of $3.2 million.
9. This Measure also includes funding for the Department of Veterans' Affairs of $1.3 million over the five years 2004-05 to 2008-09 (including $0.4 million capital over the two years 2004-05 and 2005-06).
10. The Government will continue to fund this programme for a further four years, providing savings of $45.0 million from 2005-06 to 2008-09 for the FaCS Portfolio. Savings will also be achieved of $392.6 million over four years for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and $16.0 million over four years for the Department of Education, Science and Training. Provision for this funding has already been included in the forward estimates.
11. The Government will continue to fund this programme for a further four years, providing $30.2 million from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Provision for this funding has already been included in the forward estimates.
12. This includes savings from FaCS programme and departmental funding and from Centrelink for the delivery of FaCS programmes.
13. The Government will continue to fund lapsing elements of this programme in 2005-06, at a cost of $18.5 million for the FaCS portfolio. Provision for this funding has already been included in the forward estimates.