Financial support for 16 to 19 year olds: a review of the literature and evidence on the Australian Youth Allowance

Background The Prime Minister has indicated that one of the aims of the British Government is to create an attractive combination of personalised academic and vocational pathways to reduce the appeal of short-term employment and ‘effectively raise the school leaving age from 16 to 18’ (PM. 2004). In the 2004 Budget, a key policy development to this end was announced. It outlined significant changes to Income Support arrangements for young people aged between 16 and 19 including a ‘long-term vision’ to introduce ‘a radically simplified financial support system for 16-19 year olds’ (HMT et al.,2004, p. 5). In preparation for this change, the Social Research Division of the Department for Work and Pensions commissioned the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion to carry out a literature review of international research into ‘large-scale’ and ‘unitary’ youth allowance schemes.