Half of people in poverty were in households relying mainly on social security (1,626,000 of all people in poverty).
Over one-third of people in households in poverty relied mainly on wages (1,257,000 people of all people in poverty), reflecting the large number of wage-earning households overall.
Poverty fell substantially (by 389,000 people) among people in households mainly reliant on social security. This was likely due to the $275 per week Coronavirus Supplement which almost doubled many of the lowest payments.
Poverty also fell substantially – by 401,000 people – among people in households mainly reliant on wages, likely due to the introduction of JobKeeper Payment. Consistent with this, financial stress among households whose main income was from low-paid employment fell substantially in 2020 compared with 2019.
On the other hand, poverty rose slightly (by 25,000 people) among people mainly reliant on ‘other’ income, which in this report mainly refers to investment income.