Suicide among Centrelink income support recipients

The following summary is based on data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) from the National Suicide and Self-Harm Monitoring System (the System). The System was established as part of the national effort to address suicide and self-harm in Australia by improving the quality, accessibility and timeliness of data on deaths by suicide and on self-harming and suicidal behaviours.

For guidance on reporting on suicide and self-harm data, please refer to the Mindframe quick reference guide.

Released by AIHW on Wednesday, 22 May 2024

‘People experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage’ are a priority population for suicide prevention under the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement.

Receiving Centrelink income support payments can be an indicator of socioeconomic disadvantage. However, it is not a comprehensive measure. Not all people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage receive Centrelink income support and therefore, are not included in this data release.

Data in this release are sourced from the Personal Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA). The data does not provide evidence of a causal relationship between receiving an income support payment and suicide.

What Centrelink payments are included in the data release?

Centrelink is a Services Australia program that delivers social security payments and services to Australians.

This release includes data for people who received the following income support payments:

• Age Pension – for eligible older Australians
• Carer Payment – for carers who give constant care to someone with a disability or a medical condition, or an adult who is frail aged.
• Parenting payments – for people who are the main carer of a young child, including Parenting Payment Single and Parenting Payment Partnered.
• Student payments – for students and apprentices, including Youth Allowance, Austudy, and ABSTUDY.
• Disability Support Pension – for people who have a physical, intellectual or psychiatric condition that is likely to persist for more than two years and stop them from working.
• Unemployment payments – for people who are looking for work (or are sick or injured and cannot do their usual work or study), including Youth Allowance for job seekers and JobSeeker (formally NewStart).

To be eligible, for each of these income support payments, people need to meet income and assets tests.

Further information about these payments can be found on the Services Australia Centrelink website.

Suicide among people who received an income support payment between 2011 and 2021

Individuals were identified as dying by suicide while receiving an income support payment, if they died in the same calendar year that they received the payment.

The interactive graph below by AIHW shows age-specific suicide rates among those who received income support payments between 2011 and 2021. The data can be filtered by age group or gender.

How do suicide rates change over time and compare to the Australian population?

Looking across time and comparing income support recipients and the whole Australian comparison populations, the data show:

The interactive graph below by AIHW shows annual numbers, crude rates and age-standardised rates of suicide among those who received income support payments between 2011 and 2021. The data can be filtered by payment type and gender.

It is not possible to know the reason for the reduction in suicide rates among those receiving unemployment payments from this data. However, some potential factors could include:

• The COVID-19 pandemic and Australian Governments’ responses resulted in substantially more people receiving unemployment payments, many of whom would not have received unemployment payments if not for the pandemic1.
• Previous AIHW analysis found that receiving unemployment payments for longer periods of time is associated with increased risk of death by suicide. People who received income support payments for a relatively short period during the Australian Government’s response to the pandemic may be less vulnerable compared to longer-term unemployment payment recipients.
• The dollar amount paid to unemployment payment recipients was also substantially increased.

Suicide among people who received an unemployment payment at any time in the preceding 12 months (between 2011 and 2021)

Suicide rates in this section are provided per 100,000 person years. The suicide rate is multiplied by 100,000 to standardise it per 100,000 person years. Comparing these rates with those of a matched sample who did not receive unemployment payments provides insight into the increased rates of suicide among those who received unemployment payments.

Looking across time and comparing those who did and did not receive an unemployment payment in a preceding 12-month period, between 2012 and 2021, the data show:

• People who received an unemployment payment in the preceding 12 months have higher rates of suicide compared to those who did not receive an unemployment payment in the preceding 12 months.
• During 2019, the suicide rate for those who received an unemployment payment was 4.5 times that of those who did not receive an unemployment payment in the preceding 12 months.
  Suicide rates among those who received an unemployment payment in the preceding 12 months, appears to have increased across the study period and was higher in 2017 than in 2013.
• The suicide rate among those who received an unemployment payment, in the preceding 12 months, declined markedly between 2019 and 2020. Even so, the number of suicide deaths for this group increased between 2019 and 2020 (from 651 to 752 deaths).

What does this mean for policy and practice?

This AIHW release provides information that can improve understanding of suicide among people receiving Centrelink income support payments, highlight where further investigation and evidence are needed, and provide insights into where suicide prevention efforts can be focused.

Previous analysis by AIHW has shown that lower income, lower levels of educational attainment, and being unemployed or not participating in the labour force, are each associated with a higher risk of suicide. It is important to consider past and new data as they can guide suicide prevention interventions and policy.

Suicide prevention policy and practice should:

• Consider economic determinants of health.
• Consider impacts of the rising cost of living.
• Include early distress interventions.
• Consider the complexity of socioeconomic disadvantage and acknowledge the diversity of experiences and circumstances among people who receive income support payments.

Reference

M Klapdor, ‘Changes to the COVID-19 social security measures: a brief assessment’, Parliament of Australia, 2020, accessed 22 May 2024.