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The Australian income tax and transfer system has undergone considerable reform since the mid 1980s. As a number of commentators have pointed out, one impact of reforms to cash transfers for families, as well as of some reforms to direct taxes, has been the evolution of a defacto system of family taxation, with negative consequences, in terms of incentives to earn (and consequent deadweight loss), for parents, and especially for secondary earners in couple families with children. In this paper, we use a new Australian microsimulation model, ATM, built on the EUROMOD platform to examine the extent to which policies to support families with children through the tax and transfer system have been achieved at the expense of gender equity, and how the system could be better designed to achieve child poverty reduction with gender equity. Our analysis suggests that the institution of a universal family payment that would both improve incentives and reduce child poverty is potentially affordable, even before reduction of deadweight loss under the current system is taken in to account. However, such reforms as are modelled here would be politically difficult, since the main gainers would be families with children in the top half of the income distribution, and the main losers would be taxpayers who do not have dependent children.

Economic disadvantage is a strong predictor of social exclusion, disengagement at school, early school dropout and low educational attainment. This paper shows that experience of significant events - for example, moving home and school following parents' separation; a sudden fall in family income; or illness and death in the family - can greatly exacerbate economically disadvantaged young people's sense of exclusion and disengagement. Survey data are used to show that such negative events (often characterised by young people as "shocks") are most likely to occur among economically disadvantaged families with children. In-depth interviews with young people are also used to explore young people's construction of these events, which they often describe in terms of a cascade, with several shocks following each other in rapid succession, draining away their, and their families', economic, social and emotional resources, and leaving them at risk of further exclusion. The paper concludes that policy needs to buffer young people better from the effects of these events, and so reduce their disengagement and exclusion. (DIPF/Orig.)

The Australian income tax and transfer system has undergone considerable reform since the mid 1980s. As a number of commentators have pointed out, one impact of reforms to cash transfers for families, as well as of some reforms to direct taxes, has been the evolution of a defacto system of family taxation, with negative consequences, in terms of incentives to earn (and consequent deadweight loss), for parents, and especially for secondary earners in couple families with children. In this paper, we use a new Australian microsimulation model, ATM, built on the EUROMOD platform to examine the extent to which policies to support families with children through the tax and transfer system have been achieved at the expense of gender equity, and how the system could be better designed to achieve child poverty reduction with gender equity. Our analysis suggests that the institution of a universal family payment that would both improve incentives and reduce child poverty is potentially affordable, even before reduction of deadweight loss under the current system is taken in to account. However, such reforms as are modelled here would be politically difficult, since the main gainers would be families with children in the top half of the income distribution, and the main losers would be taxpayers who do not have dependent children.

This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving, While events associated with the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had a profound impact on real family incomes and wellbeing in many rich countries, impacts in Australia were relatively minor. One reason for this was the massive policy response by the Australian government at the outset of the GFC, which pumped billions of dollars into the pockets of low and middle income families. This paper examines the impact of this stimulus on child poverty in Australia in the context of longer term policies on income support for families with children. We show that the emphasis of longer term policy has been to moderate support for families with children and that since the mid 1990s, rates of relative child poverty have not fallen. We find that while the impact of the stimulus was to reduce child poverty, the underlying trajectory of policies towards family assistance and child poverty in Australia have not changed, and therefore there is no expectation that child poverty will continue to fall in the future.

This author accepted manuscript (post print) is made available in accordance with publisher copyright policy, In this paper a framework is proposed for conceptualising ‘fullest potential’ towards which, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), children’s education should be directed (Article 29). Children’s development to their fullest potential is linked explicitly to their right to a standard of living adequate for their development (Article 27). The paper argues that focus on ‘fullest potential’ as a human rights issue exposes a tension between the rights of children, the obligations of parents to their children, and the obligations of the state to support all children’s development.

A combination of economic growth and committed revenue-raising should give most governments in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union considerable scope to devote increased resources to tackling poverty. We review the extent and nature of poverty across the transition countries, emphasising the phenomenon of the working-age poor. We consider governments’ fiscal positions and revenue raising tools, including the issue of whether some countries now have levels of external debt servicing that are so high as to hamper social sector expenditures. We analyse whether the introduction of credible unemployment benefit schemes in the CIS would aid labour market reform and hence help solve the problem there of in-work poverty (we first review experience in Central and Eastern Europe). We focus on the case of Russia, and simulate a simple scheme with 2000 household survey data. The Paper concludes by considering the role of improved wages for public service workers and the targeting of categorical benefits.

In an age when there is considerable focus on the needs and rights of children, it is perhaps a little surprising that parental income still mostly determines the standard of living that children enjoy. This has important implications, not just in terms of overall levels of welfare for children, but also in terms of equity between children. This paper looks at the issue of equity between children in Western industrial societies in just one of its many dimensions: to what extent are children in large families more likely to be in poverty than children in smaller families? Aggregate and survey microdata from around 1990 are used to examine welfare state provisions and outcomes for children in families of different size in seven Western countries. The analysis finds, not surprisingly, that children in large families are more likely to be in poverty than children in small families. However, the analysis also finds that in those countries which give higher per-child family allowances to larger families, the probability of children being in poverty does not increase with family size once parents' employment status is taken into account. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a difference between help for families and help for children that has been largely overlooked in policy debates, and a focus on policies for children is required if greater equity between children is to be realized.

While research shows that wellbeing among disadvantaged or marginalised young people is often low, few analyses compare wellbeing across different groups of young people recognised by policy as marginalised, and the non-marginalised. This paper examines the extent to which wellbeing varies across five marginalised groups (young people with disability, young carers, materially disadvantaged young people, young people from non-English speaking background, and Indigenous young people) and the non-marginalised. Analysis was conducted on data from a nationally representative sample of9-14 year old Australians in school years 4, 6 and 8 (N = 5440), designed following extensive consultations with young people. Their perspectives shaped the construction of the wellbeing index, operationalised using 12 indicators within domains of family, peer relationships, health, school, and life satisfaction. Analysis found a significant gap in wellbeing between young people with disability, young carers and materially disadvantaged young people on the one hand, and the non-marginalised on the other. Analysis also found gaps between Indigenous young people and the non-marginalised but these were mostly not significant. However, there was little difference in wellbeing between young people from non-English speaking background and the non-marginalised. For four of the five groups, gaps were larger among 13-14 year olds than among 9-12 year olds. Young people from non-English speaking backgrounds were exceptions in this respect. Latent Class Analysis was used to identify different wellbeing clusters. Odds of three marginalised groups (with disability, carers and materially disadvantaged) being in the lowest wellbeing cluster were particularly high, after controlling for other factors. However, half of those in the lowest wellbeing cluster were not in any of the marginalised groups. The analysis concludes that young people's wellbeing can best be enhanced through universalist policies that seek to include everyone rather than only through targeting specific groups. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Objectives Young people's perspectives on the association between having a family member with a chronic health concern (FHC) and their own health are under-researched. This study used young people's reports to assess the prevalence of FHCs and their association with negative health outcomes, with an aim of identifying potential inequalities between marginalised and non-marginalised young people. Family cohesion was examined as a moderating factor. Design Cross-sectional data from the Australian Child Wellbeing Project survey were used. Respondents were asked whether someone in their family experienced one or more FHCs (disability, mental illness or drug/alcohol addiction). In addition, their experience of different psychosomatic symptoms (headache, sleeplessness, irritability, etc), aspects of family relationships and social and economic characteristics (disability, materially disadvantaged and Indigenous) were documented. Setting Nationally representative Australian sample. Participants 1531 students in school years 4 and 6 and 3846 students in year 8. Results A quarter of students reported having an FHC (years 4 and 6: 23.96% (95% CI 19.30% to 28.62%); year 8: 25.35% (95% CI 22.77% to 27.94%)). Significantly, more students with FHCs than those without reported experiencing 2 or more negative health symptoms at least weekly (OR=1.78; 95% CI 1.19 to 2.65; p