This report provides an analysis of 20,405 No Interest Loans Scheme (NILS) applicants with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, concerning their rates of insurance and average expenditure for policies.

This study investigated the impacts commuting costs have on accessing employment for low income workers who are renting their home.

In 2017, the Bureau of Communications and Arts Research found that the affordability of communications services in Australia had improved overall. In general, consumers were getting better value as prices stayed the same or fell, while product inclusions (such as data) increased. This paper updates...

This small, but in-depth study, followed the installation of solar PV in low-income households living in community rental housing in Melbourne's western suburbs. The research makes a valuable contribution to informing the development of effective mechanisms for delivery of affordable energy and alleviating energy poverty.

This paper considers interest rate caps, what is known about their use and impact in other jurisdictions, and how might they contribute to a fairer consumer credit regime in New Zealand.

100 Families WA is a collaborative research project aimed at understanding the lived experience of poverty, entrenched disadvantage and social exclusion. The first bulletin focuses on the health, economic and social impacts of hardship experienced by families in Perth, Western Australia.

This paper presents preliminary findings of a recent research project on the barriers that lower-income households in four Australian cities – Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, and Darwin – face in reducing their carbon consumption, and the impact of programs implemented by federal and state governments and...

The intractable maths of low income earners' family budgets pushes them towards the marginal credit products such as payday loans, consumer leases and debt management firms. This report argues that government can and should improve the terms under which these products are offered.

Australia leads the world with rapid small-scale adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) encouraged by feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) and rebates. The common business model for small-scale solar PV is designed around individual installation ownership requiring an upfront capital cost from the dwelling owner and rooftop capacity. These...

‘Forced Car Ownership’ (FCO) describes low income households with high car ownership, resulting in a high proportion of their income going to their cars. The cost of running multiple cars, combined with housing costs, puts considerable stress on low income households. Contemporary research has identified...