The proportion of people in the Orana region on welfare equals or outstrips the national average in most categories outlined in a new report released by the Australian Local Government Association.
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It is one of the findings contained in the State of the Regions 2014-2015 report, Regional Development in a Globalised Economy, launched in Canberra yesterday.
Single parenting payments to those aged 21-24 in Orana were being paid at almost three times the national rate, (0.42 per cent compared with 0.15 per cent).
The Orana percentages were higher than the national average in both the 16-20 age group (0.05 compared with 0.03) and the 25 plus age group (1.6 compared with 0.91).
The percentage of non-students in the Orana region who received Youth Allowance was significantly higher than the national average (0.80 compared with 0.45), while the Orana region had a lower percentage of students receiving Youth Allowance than the national average (0.37 compared with 1.04).
The percentage of long-term unemployed receiving social security in the Orana region (2.52 per cent) was more than one-and-a-half times the national average of 1.63 per cent.
For the short-term unemployed, that figure was 1.02 per cent, compared with the national average of 0.97 per cent.
The take-up rate of social security among those of working age in the Orana region was 7.5 per cent higher than the national average.
Several factors influenced the take-up of unemployment-related social security payments by people of workforce age, the report said, including the attractiveness of the region to people on low incomes, job availability and housing costs.
“The chief attractor appears to be beaches but there is also high take-up in Aboriginal homelands,” the report read.
“Unemployed people leave regions where they cannot afford housing costs, so reducing take-up in regions with high housing costs and increasing it in regions with low costs.”
Regions with some of the highest social security take-up rates in Australia included Queensland’s Wide Bay Burnett and Lingiari, NT (11.9 per cent), NSW Mid North Coast (11.7 per cent), NSW Northern Rivers (10.8 per cent) and NSW South Coast (9.2 per cent).
The percentage of Orana residents who received disability support was equal to or higher than the national average in all three age categories.
