Survey finds nine in 10 lower-income Australian families worry about affording school essentials

Research from The Smith Family has found nine in 10 lower-income Australian families are worried about affording back-to-school essentials as inflation continues to bite. The annual survey interviewed more than 1,100 lower-income parents and carers whose children are supported by The Smith Family and found it was the third consecutive year more than 80% of respondents said they couldn’t afford school items.

The Smith Family report warned that, if the trend continues, Australia could see more than one million children living in poverty in the next year or so. The organisation’s CEO, Doug Taylor, said one in six children in Australia are now growing up in poverty and that disadvantaged students risk falling years behind their peers in literacy and numeracy by Year 9.

More than half (56%) of those surveyed thought their children would miss out on necessary digital devices, four in 10 worried children would miss out on extracurricular activities and feared they couldn’t afford uniforms or school shoes. The Smith Family has distributed 14,000 laptops in the past seven years, but said 44%, or 400,000 students, still aren’t digitally included.

The survey includes the lived experience of parents such as Laura, a single mother of four who says she sometimes has to choose between food and paying electricity and turn to the community for vouchers.

Key Topics

World, Doug Taylor, Australia, Child Poverty, Digital Divide, School Shoes