The key finding of this report is that the overall degree of participation amongst customers is high, with only 14 percent reporting no participation at all.
Economic participation - important findings are:
- 20 percent reported participation in paid work (averaging 28 hours per fortnight)
- 40 percent reported participation in job search (averaging 11 hours per fortnight)
- 11 percent reported participation in study (averaging 33 hours per fortnight)
- 5 percent reported participation in self-employment (averaging 31 hours per fortnight)
- The research has developed two indices that combine measurements of various types of participation into a single measure. Using one of these indices, the Composite Index of Economic Participation, economic participation of Newstart customers was equivalent to 8.2 hours a week of paid work.
Social participation - important findings are:
- almost 50% reported participation in child care and 12.5% reported participation in adult care
- 20% reported participation in voluntary work (averaging 14 hours per fortnight).
Characteristics and patterns of participation - important findings are:
- female participation for all forms of social participation (child care, adult care and voluntary work) is higher than for males
- most forms of social participation tend to decline with age.
Barriers to participation - important findings are:
- caring responsibilities (for young children and adults with a disability) and a permanent medical condition (requiring ongoing treatment) clearly limit participation.
Full paper:
Patterns of economic and social participation among FaCS customers