Working Age Pension Debts

Question

Mr Flavel: As I mentioned to Senator Ruston, detail on income support payments by electorate is already available on data.gov.au and has been produced in that way for quite some time. Senator ASKEW: That's broken down by national and state data, is it? Mr Flavel: It's broken down by Commonwealth electorate divisions. Senator ASKEW: How many people on a working-age payment have a debt, and what's the average debt value? Mr Flavel: That's very bespoke information we'd have to take on notice. Senator ASKEW: So you can take that on notice and come back to us? When you do that, could you do it by payment type so we can see the breakdown by that? Mr Flavel: Yes. Senator ASKEW: You won't have answers to my next questions. Total value of the debt owed by recipients-can that be sourced in the total value? Mr Flavel: Of which recipients? Senator ASKEW: For the working-age payments by each payment type, what's the total value of debt owed by recipients for each of those payments? That can accumulated? Mr Flavel: We'll take that on notice. Senator ASKEW: While you're taking things on notice, could you provide the average and median-level debt owed for each payment, as a comparison?

Answer

Please see attached answer.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• DSS SQ26-000746.pdf (opens in a new tab)