Mr ANDREN (2:50 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Community Services and I ask it on behalf of a family in my electorate with four dependent children. Minister, can you explain why it is that since this family's eldest son turned 16 and so became eligible for the youth allowance its total benefits have been cut by almost $50 a fortnight, although its assessable income has not changed but the costs of feeding a growing family certainly have? Minister, do you concede that the cost of supporting a child does not reduce when he or she turns 16? Can you outline what steps the government will take to address this clear anomaly affecting many Australian families?

Mr ANTHONY (Minister for Community Services) —I would certainly like the honourable member for Calare to provide me with details of this particular family as I am not in a position to speak directly on it. What I can tell the honourable member for Calare is that there were substantial changes made to the youth allowance. These were positive changes, particularly for many families when they sent their children away for education. For the first time, many people on youth allowance were able to receive rent assistance which they were never entitled to before; this was a substantial increase. Likewise with families, there have been substantial increases in family tax benefit that came through with the changes to the new taxation system, which range between $20 and $50.

As far as the actual assessment income test is concerned, yes, we did put that in, and the reason for that was that we were concerned that some families in the past were sheltering their income in obvious ways to minimise it to claim youth allowance, which if their assessable income had been used would have been inappropriate. That is why the new changes were brought into place for youth allowance. If you have a particular situation, as I mentioned in my introduction, I am happy to look at it.