Impoverished Australian Children

Team was comprised of an informal group of social workers who are interested in the current situation facing Australian children in terms of marginalization with respect to percentages of children living below the poverty line. The information required was considered unprotected since it is available to the general public (Information sharing: Policy and procedure guidelines, 2008).

Information-collection method, tests for relevance and timeliness, and formatting approach The information needed by the team of social workers was collected from relevant Australian government online resources as well as nonprofit organizations, peer-reviewed and scholarly sources as well as the mainstream media. The information collected was limited to reports published within the last 4 years to ensure timeliness and all reports that were not specifically targeted at Australian children were excluded from the analysis to ensure relevance.

The information was presented in a systematic format that addressed each issue of interest in turn. c. Outcomes of the review Estimating the numbers of Australian children who live in poverty is complicated by the fact that the Australia government does not have an official poverty line, but social scientists have determined that each child needs a median amount of $50 (AUS) per day to cover the costs of food, shelter, clothing, and medical needs (Cox, 2013).

In 2010, it was estimated that approximately one in seven Australian children (14.7%) lived in families that had incomes that were more than 50 per cent below the equivalised median income level which is among the most widely used poverty lines, including use by the United Nations (Hilferty & Redmond, 2010). The 14.7% level for 2010 was higher than the poverty level for children in the majority of European countries, and the percentage is even higher for Indigenous Australian children (Hilferty & Redmond, 2010).

Based on the estimates developed during the 1990s, almost 50 per cent of all Indigenous Australian children live in families that have incomes more than 50 per cent below the median income level (Hilferty & Redmond, 2010). By 2014, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) estimated that about 603,000 (17.7%) of all Australian children are currently living in poverty. Despite significant efforts by the Australian government to reduce these numbers, the number of children living in impoverished conditions in Australia continues to represent a nationwide problem.

As the ACOSS emphasizes, "The number of children living in poverty is a disturbing and growing human rights issue in Australia. While Australia continues to thrive as one of the most prosperous countries in the world, an increasing number of our youngest are being left behind" (Child poverty, 2014, para. 2). The studies to date confirm that children living in single-parent families are at greatest risk, and this group experienced a 15% increase in the number of children living in poverty since 2001 (Child poverty, 2014).

Other authorities place the estimate of the percentage of children in Australia living in poverty slightly lower at 17% (or 573,000 children), but also estimate the inordinately high numbers of children living in impoverished single-parent families at 21.8% (Cox, 2013). Although the number of dependent children living in Australian households in which no parents had an earned income decreased from approximately 756,000 in 1995-1996 to about 684,000 in 2005-2006 (Miranti & Harding, 2010), by 2013, more than one million Australian children were estimated to live in homes where neither parent has an earned income (Cox, 2013).

It remains unclear at this time, though, what percentage of these children live in impoverished conditions (Cox, 2013), but the implications of long-term unemployment on Australian children are well documented. In this regard, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that, "Long-term unemployment has the potential to impact upon not just the individual concerned, but also their families. Children with unemployed parents may face additional challenges and may see a negative impact upon their education and future prospects" (Long-term unemployment, 2014, para. 7). d.

Proposed next step based on the outcomes of the review In the public sector, it is axiomatic that in order to improve something, it must first be accurately measured. The research showed that many of the analyses of the percentages of Australian children living in poverty are based on poverty lines established by the United Nations because Australia has an official policy of not establishing a national poverty level, a policy that has adversely affected the ability of researchers to develop meaningful estimates and comparisons of data for policy-making purposes.

Therefore, the next step needed in addressing the alarming percentages of Australian children who are suspected of living in impoverished conditions is to establish an.