Measuring the social impact of income management in the Northern Territory: An updated analysis

Income management policies have been in place in the Northern Territory since 2007. These policies limit how recipients of government income support payments can spend a proportion of these funds. The policies were initially directed at Indigenous Australians who remain the major group on the program. The objective of the policy was to improve individual and community outcomes. Around one-third of the Northern Territory Indigenous population aged 15 years and over have been subject to the policy. Initial evaluation findings could not identify any such gains at the community level. This paper extends the analysis undertaken in the 2014 evaluation using contemporary data covering child health and wellbeing, education, crime and alcohol consumption. It confirms the previous finding of an absence of evidence of discernible, positive benefits across these measures which could be attributed to the policies.