Explanatory notes

Abbreviations

The compendium contains a number of abbreviations for frequently used terms. Unless otherwise stated or the context clearly indicates to the contrary, the following terms have the meanings given below:

'Minister' means the Minister for Social Security up to September 1998 and the Minister for Family and Community Services thereafter;
'Department' means the Department of Social Security up to September 1998 and the Department of Family and Community Services thereafter;
'Director-General' means the Director-General of the Department of Social Security;
'Secretary' means the Secretary to the Department of Social Security up to September 1998 and the Secretary to the Department of Family and Community Services thereafter;
'Employment Minister', 'Employment Department' and 'Employment Secretary' mean the Minister, department and Secretary to the department respectively responsible for employment issues. The portfolio and department had a variety of titles over the 18-year period; and
'Act' means the Social Security Act 1947 or the Social Security Act 1991.

Names of payments

In the earlier years of the 18-year period covered by the compendium, a number of social security payments had apostrophes in their names. These were removed over time, many of them when the 1991 Social Security Act replaced the 1947 Act. For example, Sole Parent's Pension and Wife's Pension were renamed Sole Parent Pension and Wife Pension in the 1991 Act. The terms used in the compendium are those that prevailed at the time.

Inappropriate terminology

Certain terminology used in the compendium may be considered inappropriate and/or offensive by readers. However, the language used is an accurate reflection of the terminology employed by the legislation upon which this document reports. Readers are asked to note that revising such language to suit current standards would compromise the historical accuracy of the document. In more general sections of the document, the currently more acceptable terminology has been used.

References to powers of the Director-General or Secretary

The legislation contains many provisions giving discretionary powers to the department's Director-General/Secretary to make a variety of decisions—for example, on whether a person has complied with the qualifying conditions for a particular social security payment. The description of the legislation has retained this legal form of words. However, it should be noted that this does not represent the way the law is applied. In practice, these powers have always been delegated to departmental officers.

Disallowable instruments

The compendium makes numerous references to pieces of legislation being 'disallowable instruments'. This means that the legislation has to be placed in the Commonwealth Gazette and laid before both Houses of the Parliament within a prescribed period. The Parliament has the opportunity to disallow the legislation in that period.

Financial year

Reference is made in certain records to the 'financial year'. In Australia, this is the year ended 30 June. It is the year used for tax purposes.

Format of compendium

The legislative changes have been presented in the strict chronological order in which the amending Acts were passed and, within an amending Act, in the order in which the changes arose. The only exception to this has been to consolidate amendments (mainly in the 1947 Act) where identical changes affecting different payments were spread throughout the Act. In these instances, the changes are in order based on the first of the relevant amendments. It should be noted that the order in which changes are legislated is not related in any way to the date of their implementation.

The tables for each record contain in every case details of the location of changes in the amending Act, the date of commencement, the date of application and payments affected by any changes. A description of the changes then follows the table. On occasions, where background information is provided related to more than one record, it is located under the name of the amending Act or at the beginning of the year. Records have been located in numerical order within each year.

Location in Act

The section headed 'Location in Act' sets out precisely the sections and/or schedules (or items in schedules) in the amending Acts where a change or changes occurred. Generic standard sections at the front of amending Acts covering dates of commencement and application have not been recorded.

Commencement and application dates

The tables provide both a 'date of commencement' and 'date of application'. The date of application represents the date on which the change took effect and, for policy and research purposes, in the vast majority of cases is the only date of any importance. The actual date has been included in each case even though it may not have been known at the time the legislation was passed. The date of commencement is frequently different from the application date and reflects various legislative requirements.

The information under dates of commencement and application has generally been reported as expressed in the legislation. The dates may be the Date of Royal Assent, a variable or unspecified date hinging on the date on which a certain other Act (or Acts) commence, or whether they commence, or can be a date to be proclaimed. (Proclaimed means the date on which the Governor-General proclaimed Royal Assent to the relevant part of the Act in the Commonwealth Gazette.) On occasions, there can be several provisos to these starting dates and, where these provisos have been very detailed, full information has not always been given. In most cases, this ancillary information was important only at the time the legislation was passed and is of no more than academic interest after the event. The Date of Royal Assent has been given at the beginning of each amending Act.

The date of application is not necessarily the same as the date on which new rates of payment are made. Social security payments have generally been made for instalment periods and the date of payment in these cases depends on when precisely the instalment period commenced.

Listing of payments affected

The tables contain the names of all the payments affected by a change.

Categorisation of payments

For some purposes, it is useful to identify social security payments by broad categories. The Australian system contains the following payments:

'pensions', which are generally intended to provide a basic level of long-term income support;
'benefits', which provide a basic level of short-term income support;
'supplementary payments' ('add-ons'). These are additional entitlements paid almost exclusively to pensioners and beneficiaries. Entitlement to them is based on entitlement to the primary payment and they are not paid in their own right. They encompass payments such as Rent Assistance, Guardian Allowance and Pharmaceutical Allowance;
'family payments', which covered (before the new structure applying from July 2000) payments such as Family Allowance and Maternity Allowance in the Social Security Act; and
'other payments', which constitute all the other cash payments such as Mobility Allowance and Funeral Benefit.

The compendium also covers non-cash fringe benefits, as they are available to pensioners and beneficiaries on the basis of their social security status and aspects of them are dealt with in the Social Security Act. They have been regarded as a payment type for purposes of the compendium.

For each change described in records, the compendium lists all payments potentially affected under the Social Security Act. Sometimes in practice, a change will mainly impact on only certain of the designated payments and have minimal (if any) impact on others. This situation most frequently arises where a change would generally affect only older or younger people, while a listed payment exclusively or predominantly assists people at the opposite end of the age scale to those the change is targeted to. For example, changes related to the treatment of superannuation in means tests would have very limited, if any, application to Job Search Allowance recipients during the period before 1 July 1991, when the allowance was paid only to 16-17 year-olds. Readers should exercise their judgement in these cases and payments unlikely to be affected have been excluded from the index.

Pensions and benefits

Pensions and benefits have been clearly differentiated in the Social Security Act over the years as they generally have different rates and income tests. However, some confusion can arise because of the names of the payments.

While many pensions carry the name 'pension', a number do not. Supporting Parent's Benefit (not now in existence) was a pension, notwithstanding that it had the term 'benefit' in its name. Other pensions have had the terms 'allowance' or 'payment' in their names. On the other hand Double Orphan Pension has the designation 'pension' but is not an income support payment and has not been included in the pension category.

For a number of years after 1982, all benefits had the name 'benefits'. Now only one (Special Benefit) retains that name and most are currently called allowances.

Mature Age Allowance has been both a pension and a benefit. The allowance was paid under pension conditions from its inception in March 1994 and was regarded as a pension. Following changes applying from July 1996, it was paid under benefit conditions to new recipients and was classified as a benefit. However, persons to whom it had been granted before that date continued to receive it under pension conditions. Accordingly, changes can apply to it as a pension or benefit, or both. When separately identified as a payment type, the terms 'Mature Age Allowance (pension)' and 'Mature Age Allowance (benefit)' have been used.

Another complication relates to Parenting Allowance and Parenting Payment. Parenting Allowance had two components, Basic Parenting Allowance which was regarded as a family payment and Additional Parenting Allowance which was a benefit. The establishment of Parenting Payment involved a third component, Parenting Payment (single), which replaced Sole Parent Pension and was a pension. These components have been spelt out separately in recording payments affected.

In the tables, where several pensions or benefits are covered by a change, the terms 'pensions' and 'benefits' have been used to specify payments affected. A list of what constitutes a pension or benefit has been presented in the 'Key to pensions and benefits at different dates' section at the end of the Explanatory notes. The information has been provided for different time periods. Accordingly, to ascertain what 'pension' or 'benefit' means for a particular change, the reader should note the date on which the change was implemented and check what constituted a pension or benefit at that date. These will be the ones covered by the record unless the description indicates some variation from this. It should also be noted that where the terms pensions or benefits are used on their own in descriptions, they always mean a social security pension or benefit at a particular date as set out at the end of the Explanatory notes. The terms 'pensioner' and 'beneficiary' have an analogous meaning.

The only variation to this approach relates to Special Benefit. Records relating to rate or income test changes contain the words 'Special Benefit (in effect)' when identifying payments affected by a change. This reflects the fact that there has never been a specified maximum rate or a specific income test for Special Benefit. Instead the legislation has stated that the rate was to be at the discretion of the Director-General/Secretary with the qualification that it could not exceed that of certain other benefits if the person had been entitled to one of them. The assets test on the other hand applies to Special Benefit.

The term 'in effect' takes account of the fact that, notwithstanding the wording of the Act, the general practice since before 1983 has been to pay Special Benefit at the maximum relevant benefit rate and, up to September 1990, subject to the benefit income test. Since September 1990, a dollar for dollar withdrawal rate has been applied to recipients of Special Benefit with non-benefit income so that from that time income test changes have been of little practical relevance. However, as this was an administrative rather than a legislative change, the words 'in effect' have been retained. When the words 'benefits, Special Benefit (in effect)' are used, it means all benefits are included in the change but Special Benefit only in the sense outlined. Given the discretionary nature of Special Benefit, the term benefit when used in the general description could include or exclude it.

To avoid excessive repetition, the term 'workforce benefits' has been used at times in the general descriptions. This term includes Unemployment Benefit, Job Search Allowance, Sickness Benefit and Sickness Allowance according to which of them were in existence at the date of implementation of a change.

Another feature of the payment types is that, in the restructuring of unemployment payments from 1 July 1991, Job Search Allowance retained its name. However, the group of people covered by the allowance from that time differed greatly from those covered before the change.

Supplementary payments

Supplementary payments have been regarded as payments in their own right for purposes of recording changes specific to those payments. This approach makes recording much easier through avoiding endless repetition by, for example, having to record every pension and benefit whenever a change to Rent Assistance is made.

Changes to the primary pension or benefit to which supplementary payments relate are not covered in these changes except where the supplementary payment has been introduced or abolished in respect of a pension or benefit, or there has been a name change. Accordingly, when Rent Assistance was first extended to unemployment beneficiaries, this was recorded as a change to both Rent Assistance and Unemployment Benefit. Thereafter, any further changes are recorded only as changes to Rent Assistance. Researchers who wish to trace the history of Unemployment Benefit, and are interested in the conditions under which Rent Assistance is paid to unemployment beneficiaries, would need to check all references to Rent Assistance in the compendium following the extension of such assistance to those beneficiaries.

Likewise, when a new pension or benefit has been introduced, all the supplementary payments attached to that payment have not been recorded in the 'payments affected' row.

Other payments and general provisions

Payments other than pensions and benefits have been individually spelt out under 'payments affected' in each record. For some payments affected, the words 'general provision' have been used. This applies where, for example, there has been a change to a definition that applied throughout the Act, or the change amounted to the signing of a reciprocal Social Security Agreement with another country.

Payment names not covered by legislation

Certain records refer to changes to Additional Pension for Children, Additional Benefit for Children, Additional Allowance for Children (used for only a very short time), Mother's/Guardian's Allowance and Special Temporary Allowance (none of these payments exists currently). These terms were never used in the Social Security Act but were in common use and recorded as such in the department's annual reports. Additional Pension, Benefit and Allowance were supplements to pensions and benefits for dependent children; Mother's/Guardian's Allowance (Guardian Allowance and in the Act since 1991) was a supplement for sole parent pensioners and beneficiaries; and Special Temporary Allowance was used to describe a provision under which, following the death of a member of a pensioner couple, the surviving pensioner continued to receive the combined married rate of pension for 12 weeks.

Payments not identified as categories in their own right

While the general approach has been to classify any payment, including supplementary payments, as payments in their own right, there are two exceptions to this. 'Special needs' pensions are treated simply as part of the category to which they belong—for example, a change to special needs Wife Pension is treated as a change to Wife Pension. The other is the addition to what (up to June 2000) was Family Allowance for families with triplets or higher multiples. This is not regarded as a separate payment in the Social Security Act but was commonly known as 'Multiple Birth Payment' and (between 1992 and mid-2000) as 'Multiple Birth Allowance'.

Residual and consequential categories of payment

In recording changes, only the primary payment is mentioned under 'payments affected'. For example, if a change stated that a particular family payment was not to be regarded as income in the income test for Newstart Allowance, the only payment type mentioned would be Newstart Allowance as, in this case, there has been no change in the conditions under which the family payment was made.

In addition, consequential effects on payments have not been counted as 'payments affected'. For example, the introduction of Youth Allowance affected Newstart Allowance as Newstart Allowance was no longer paid to persons aged under 21 years and a change to Invalid Pension (before its abolition in 1991) would usually flow through to Sheltered Employment Allowance as a person could receive the allowance only if he/she otherwise qualified for the pension.

Non-social security payments

Payments not made under the Social Security Act are mentioned only to the extent that they impinge on social security payments. When they are mentioned, it is usually in the context that a person becomes eligible for, or is entitled to a higher rate of, pension or benefit only if he/she has been receiving a social security or other income support payment for a specified period. The most commonly mentioned such payments are those made under the Veterans' Entitlements Act, Youth Training Allowance and certain labour force payments.

References to payments under the Veterans' Entitlements Act have been referred to in descriptions as 'specified veterans' payment'. Exactly what the term means for a particular record or at a particular time has not been spelt out. In recent years it has generally referred to Age Service Pension, Invalidity Service Pension, Partner Service Pension or Carer Service Pension. Occasionally, it has also included an Income Support Supplement paid to Armed Service widows and widowers.

Interpretation of payments affected

On occasions, the list of 'payments affected' may give a misleading impression. In the case, for example, of changes to the general categories of income which are exempt from income tests, Family Allowance and Family Allowance Supplement, and the successors to those payments, have not been included under that sub-heading. This reflects the fact that Family Allowance, since it became subject to an income test in late 1987, and Family Allowance Supplement and its successors since late 1988, have been income tested based on taxable income. The same categories of income exempted from other social security income tests would in most (probably all) cases also be exempt income for income tax purposes. In effect, therefore, the same exemptions would apply to these payments but would not be reflected under 'payments affected' in compendium tables.

Description of changes

The description of the changes has been recorded below the tables and provides the main information. Explanations of, and comments on, changes where they do not form part of the main description have been placed in square brackets.

The compendium seeks to provide plain English descriptions which keep fairly close to the meaning of the legislation. It does not purport, nor is it intended, to be a replica of the legislation. People who need for any purpose to know or interpret the precise meaning of sections of the Social Security Act should consult the Act itself.

Guide to identifying developments from 1983 to 2000

During the period covered by the 1983-2000 compendium, there was a substantial restructuring of most assistance for people affected by life's major contingencies. While some payments which existed at the start of the period remained 18 years later, many new payments were introduced and others were either abolished in the period or absorbed into the new payments. In addition, a number of payments were renamed with little or no other change made to them.

This short guide seeks to assist readers wishing to identify developments in assistance during the period by highlighting, in respect of the various contingencies, the payment to which they should give attention. The guide makes reference to all payments contained in the 'Payments affected' row in the tables for each record. It initially deals with basic income support payments available in respect of the various contingencies, and then with other payments whether supplementing this income support or paid in their own right.

The most recent spelling only has been used when citing payments whose names contained an apostrophe 's' which was later removed following a legislative amendment.

Basic income support

Assistance to the aged

Age Pension and Wife Pension provided income support to the aged throughout the period but a phasing out of Wife Pension commenced during it. Mature Age Allowance was introduced in the period as a bridge between work and retirement with Mature Age Partner Allowance available at one stage to an allowee's spouse.

Assistance to people affected by long-term disabilities or sickness

Disability Support Pension replaced Invalid Pension, Sheltered Employment Allowance and Rehabilitation Allowance in the period and provided income support to this group. Disability Wage Supplement was introduced later and also abolished in the period. Details for Wife Pension are as for Age Pension.

Assistance to carers

There was no specific income support for carers at the commencement of the period—Wife Pension would have played a role in some instances for women who were eligible for it but many carers were dependent on Special Benefit. Spouse Carer's Pension was introduced in the period and provided income support to certain men assuming a caring role. It was replaced by a Carer Pension available to men and women and which was later renamed Carer Payment.

Assistance to sole parents

Sole Parent Pension replaced Class A Widow's Pension and Supporting Parent Benefit in the period and provided income support to sole parents. Sole Parent Pension was later abolished and replaced by Parenting Parent (single), a component of Parenting Payment.

Assistance to older single women without children

Class B Widow's Pension, which provided this income support, began to be phased out during the period. It was also renamed Widow B Pension. Later a Widow Allowance was introduced and assisted certain older women without children under benefit conditions.

Assistance following a death

Income support for women in these circumstances was provided by Class C Widow's Pension until it was replaced by Widowed Person Allowance, which was paid under different conditions and not restricted to women. Widowed Person Allowance was later renamed Bereavement Allowance. Related support was also provided by certain payments not regarded as basic income support - these are dealt with under 'Other payments'.

Assistance to the unemployed

Unemployment Benefit provided this income support at the commencement of the period. Job Search Allowance for unemployed people under 18 years was introduced in the period. In a major restructuring, Unemployment Benefit was abolished and Newstart Allowance, along with a much different Job Search Allowance not restricted to young people, provided assistance to the unemployed. For a time income support for persons aged under 18 years was provided outside the Social Security Act by Youth Training Allowance. Later Job Search Allowance was abolished. Additional Parenting Allowance, Partner Allowance and Parenting Payment (partnered) also had a role in unemployment assistance while Mature Age Allowance provided a bridge between work and retirement for older people. When Youth Allowance was introduced, it assisted younger unemployed people.

Assistance to persons with temporary sickness or disability

Sickness Benefit performed the income support function but was replaced during the period by Sickness Allowance, which was similar but had some different conditions. Conditions of payment of Sickness Allowance (as for Sickness Benefit) were aligned with unemployment payments rather than with payments for people with long-term medical conditions. Additional Parenting Allowance, Partner Allowance and Parenting Payment (partnered) are also relevant to this assistance. Later Youth Allowance provided income support for younger persons in this category.

Assistance to students

Income support for students was provided by education payments outside of the Social Security Act until Youth Allowance and Austudy Payment were introduced in social security legislation late in the period.

Assistance of last resort

Special Benefit continued as before the period to be a temporary last resort safety net for people not eligible for other income support payments.

Other payments

Assistance to people paying rent

Rental assistance had been provided by Supplementary Assistance or Supplementary Allowance but these two payments were replaced during the period by Rent Assistance. Incentive Allowance was retained but started to be phased out. Residential Care Allowance had a small role in rental assistance for a short period.

Assistance to carers

A Carer Allowance was introduced in the period. It assisted people caring for adults who were sick or had a disability but also replaced Child Disability Allowance (traditionally regarded as a family benefit) for persons caring for children in such circumstances.

Assistance to families with children

There were several major restructures in assistance to families with children within the period. Various payments were absorbed by other payments with new names and conditions, and some payments which had at one time been supplements to pensions and benefits in respect of children were absorbed into more general family assistance. Family Income Supplement was abolished and Family Allowance Supplement introduced. Additional Pension/Benefit/Allowance for Children was abolished. Then Family Allowance and Family Allowance Supplement were replaced with Family Payment (which had 'Basic' and 'Additional' components). A further restructure created a new Family Payment with 'minimum' and 'more than minimum' components. A Family Tax Payment was introduced and the name 'Family Allowance' was restored. Near the end of the period all general assistance for families with children was abolished, or abolished in its prevailing form, and removed from the Social Security Act.

In assistance specific to sole parents, Mother's/Guardian Allowance was renamed Guardian Allowance. The allowance was removed from the Social Security Act with a number of other family payments.

Home Child Care Allowance was introduced and shortly thereafter was subsumed by Basic Parenting Allowance which later became Basic Parenting Payment (partnered). The last mentioned payment was also absorbed into the new family payments provided outside the Social Security Act.

A Maternity Allowance and Maternity Immunisation Allowance were established within the period. They were removed from the Social Security Act with most other family payments but remained substantially unchanged in the new Act.

Double Orphan Pension was in place at the start of the period and remained in the Social Security Act at the end of it.

Handicapped Child's Allowance was replaced by a Child Disability Allowance paid under different conditions. This family payment was absorbed into Carer Allowance as previously stated.

Assistance following a death

Funeral Benefit and Special Temporary Allowance were abolished and replaced by a much broader range of payments which went under the title of Bereavement Payments. There was also provision for certain family payments to continue to be paid for a period following the death of a child. This assistance in the event of a death should be examined in conjunction with income support following a death described above.

Payments not elsewhere included

Other payments (unless otherwise stated, all were introduced during the period 1983-2000) are listed below:

Mobility Allowance provided assistance to people with disabilities throughout the period. Youth Disability Supplement was an additional payment made to young recipients of Disability Support Pension;
Remote Area Allowance assisted pensioners and beneficiaries living in remote areas;
Pharmaceutical Allowance (initially named Pharmaceutical Supplement) was paid as a supplement to pensions and benefits to cover the cost of pharmaceuticals;
an Employment Entry Payment assisted a wide range of pensioners and beneficiaries who obtained employment;
an Education Entry Payment assisted a number of categories of pensioner and beneficiary attending education courses;
Young Homeless Allowance, before it was absorbed into the general benefit rates structure, provided additional income to homeless young beneficiaries;
Job Search Training Supplement, Newstart Training Supplement and Training Supplement for Widows provided assistance to recipients of Job Search Allowance, Newstart Allowance and Widow Allowance respectively while undertaking approved training;
Approved Program of Work Supplement was a supplement paid to the unemployed under the Work for the Dole Scheme;
Participant Supplement was a supplement provided to participants in the Community Development Employment Projects Scheme;
Pensioner Education Supplement assisted certain pensioners and beneficiaries undertaking qualifying study;
Fares Allowance mainly assisted Youth Allowance, Austudy Payment and Pensioner Education Supplement recipients with travel costs incurred while undertaking tertiary study;
Disaster Relief Payment provided short-term assistance to residents in the event of a major disaster;
Crisis Payment was available to persons qualified for a pension or benefit who were experiencing severe financial hardship in specified circumstances;
Pension Supplement enabled appropriate compensation to be paid to pensioners when the new Goods and Services Tax was introduced;
Telephone Allowance replaced a telephone rental concession voucher scheme and provided assistance to pensioners and beneficiaries;
non-cash Fringe Benefits continued to be available to pensioners throughout the period and were extended to certain beneficiaries; and
a Seniors Health Card extended a range of health care benefits to certain elderly people not entitled to a pension.

Note: In relation to educational assistance, there were also numerous changes in the period in the assistance provided to full-time students under the family payments system. Also, to a limited extent Family Allowance and Youth Allowance were alternative payments for full-time students (refer to Record 1 of 1998 and Record 11 of 1999).

Key to pensions and benefits at different dates

(This should be read in conjunction with the sections of the Explanatory notes titled 'Names of payments' and 'Pensions and benefits'.)

Pensions

1 January 1983—30 November 1983

Age Pension; Invalid Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Sheltered Employment Allowance; Wife's Pension; Class A Widow's Pension; Class B Widow's Pension; Class C Widow's Pension; Supporting Parent's Benefit

1 December 1983—31 October 1985

1 November 1985—28 February 1989

1 March 1989—30 June 1991

Age Pension; Invalid Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Sheltered Employment Allowance; Wife's Pension; Sole Parent's Pension; Class B Widow's Pension; Widowed Person Allowance; Carer's Pension

1 July 1991—11 November 1991

Age Pension; Invalid Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Sheltered Employment Allowance; Wife Pension; Sole Parent Pension; Widow B Pension; Widowed Person Allowance; Carer Pension

12 November 1991—19 March 1994

Age Pension; Disability Support Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Wife Pension; Sole Parent Pension; Widow B Pension; Widowed Person Allowance; Carer Pension

20 March 1994—30 June 1994

Age Pension; Disability Support Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Wife Pension; Sole Parent Pension; Widow B Pension; Widowed Person Allowance; Carer Pension; Mature Age Allowance; Mature Age Partner Allowance

1 July 1994—31 December 1994

1 January 1995—30 June 1997

Age Pension; Disability Support Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Wife Pension; Sole Parent Pension; Widow B Pension; Bereavement Allowance; Carer Pension; Mature Age Allowance; Mature Age Partner Allowance; Disability Wage Supplement

1 July 1997—31 December 1997

Age Pension; Disability Support Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Wife Pension; Sole Parent Pension; Widow B Pension; Bereavement Allowance; Carer Payment; Mature Age Allowance; Mature Age Partner Allowance; Disability Wage Supplement

1 January 1998—19 March 1998

20 March 1998—26 June 2000

Age Pension; Disability Support Pension; Rehabilitation Allowance; Wife Pension; Parenting Payment (single); Widow B Pension; Bereavement Allowance; Carer Payment; Mature Age Allowance; Mature Age Partner Allowance

27 June 2000—31 December 2000

Age Pension; Disability Support Pension; Wife Pension; Parenting Payment (single); Widow B Pension; Bereavement Allowance; Carer Payment; Mature Age Allowance; Mature Age Partner Allowance

Benefits

1 January 1983—31 December 1987

Unemployment Benefit; Sickness Benefit; Special Benefit

1 January 1988—30 June 1991

Unemployment Benefit; Job Search Allowance; Sickness Benefit; Special Benefit

1 July 1991—11 November 1991

Job Search Allowance; Newstart Allowance; Sickness Benefit; Special Benefit

12 November 1991—19 September 1994

Job Search Allowance; Newstart Allowance; Sickness Allowance; Special Benefit

20 September 1994—30 June 1995

Job Search Allowance; Newstart Allowance; Sickness Allowance; Special Benefit; Partner Allowance

1 July 1995—30 June 1996

Job Search Allowance; Newstart Allowance; Sickness Allowance; Special Benefit; Partner Allowance; Additional Parenting Allowance; Widow Allowance

1 July 1996—19 September 1996

Job Search Allowance; Newstart Allowance; Sickness Allowance; Special Benefit; Partner Allowance; Additional Parenting Allowance; Mature Age Allowance; Widow Allowance

20 September 1996—19 March 1998

Newstart Allowance; Sickness Allowance; Special Benefit; Partner Allowance; Additional Parenting Allowance; Mature Age Allowance; Widow Allowance

20 March 1998—30 June 1998

Newstart Allowance; Sickness Allowance; Special Benefit; Partner Allowance; Additional Parenting Payment (partnered); Mature Age Allowance; Widow Allowance

1 July 1998—31 December 2000

Newstart Allowance; Sickness Allowance; Special Benefit; Youth Allowance; Austudy Payment; Partner Allowance; Additional Parenting Payment (partnered); Mature Age Allowance; Widow Allowance

Note: Where the terms 'Parenting Allowance' or 'Parenting Payment' are used on their own, they incorporate a benefit component.

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