For more than 20 years, Jesuit Social Services has collaborated with researchers to examine complex disadvantage in communities around the country, releasing a series of reports now generally known as 'Dropping off the Edge.' This year's report, the fifth in the series, builds an unparalleled...

To better understand the idea of welfare dependency and its influence on policy debate, this paper examines how the idea emerged during United States' debates over welfare reform from the 1960s to the 2000s and outlines the history of the idea.

This report sets the context for a strengths-based ecological and culturally-founded approach to Indigenous housing, health and wealth.

If 'levelling up' is to be seen as legitimate by those it is trying to help, it must meaningfully involve the public in decisions about how money is spent. This report finds that that the public is divided on what levelling up should look like...

From April to September 2020, Good Shepherd commissioned Roy Morgan to investigate a group of working Australians that they have termed the ‘new vulnerable’. This report provides in-depth analysis of these people, and their experience of navigating support systems to address their needs arising from...

Like all state governments, the South Australian government provides concessions for people living on very low incomes and struggling with affordability of essential services. This review of the concessions system in South Australia highlights how the complex patchwork created poverty premiums and barriers to accessing...

This research identifies three distinct groups within the population that emerged from a survey of responses to questions about structural and individual causes of inequalities, fairness and perceptions of inequalities in the United Kingdom.

This paper provides the first detailed, publicly available analysis of the socio-economic and attitudinal determinants of COVID-19 vaccination amongst both Australian adults and Australian parents’ views about vaccinating their children in the future.

The research outlined in this report shows that learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic has been most pronounced among socio-economically disadvantaged students and schools.

The findings in this report suggest that the close proximity of gambling venues to people’s homes increases financial hardship and mental health problems, particularly for socio-economically vulnerable populations. This evidence may be useful for state and local governments with their decisions to approve future gaming...

This report provides an extensive analysis of how low-income households both value insurance and what they consider when making their insurance decisions. The findings point to both practical barriers, such as cost, for low-income households, as well as attitudinal differences in the perception of how...

Inspired by Auckland City Mission’s Family 100 project, the 100 Families WA project sought to gain a deep understanding of the lived experience of entrenched disadvantage in Perth, Western Australia. This report outlines the research findings.

This paper traces the emergence of a poorly understood social challenge and one which symbolises Britain’s broken ‘social settlement’ - the continued rise in working poverty since the beginning of this century.

In 2018–19 there were an estimated 27,200 surviving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 and over who had been removed from their families and communities as a result of past government policies. The findings of this report show that the Stolen Generations aged...

This report identifies three major digital barriers to economic justice arising from the COVID-19 pandemic—the collapse of benefits automation, expanded workplace and school surveillance, and the digital profiling of economic distress. The report uses a data justice framework to suggest how policy-makers might mitigate the...

This report examines how Australia’s community services sector is addressing high levels of need in the community during early 2021, a period in which Australian communities sought to recover from the crises of 2020.

This research finds that inadequate social security payments play a significant role in shaping poverty and financial stress trends in Australia. It also finds that it is possible to address these challenges by increasing the overall social security budget.

This paper argues that Australia has the means to ensure that those who find themselves unemployed are not forced into poverty. The rate of Jobseeker should be set at a rate that guarantees that no Australian, and especially no child, lives in poverty.

This report provides an overview of a comprehensive study which investigated the impact of the Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY).

This research report is the first of three Maximising Impact reports that will examine new tenancies over a 30-month period from tenancy commencement. The report presents key findings from the baseline survey of 170 new tenants, conducted between May 2018 and April 2020.