When was baby bonus introduced in australia

From 1 July , parents will need to make a declaration on their Baby Bonus claim form that they have lodged their child's birth registration form with the relevant state or territory Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry, in order to receive the Baby Bonus.

Parents receive the birth registration forms in hospital, at the same time as their Baby Bonus claim form. Parents may be asked to provide proof of their child's birth registration at a later date.

Last updated: 7 November - am. About the Department. We assumed the outcome rates followed negative binomial distribution to account for over-dispersion in the data and used segmented regression analyses to measure the impact of the baby bonus [7]. The regression models included a term for the baby bonus policy implementation, which represented the first 12 months from the beginning of the 2 nd quarter of April March , during which the baby bonus was announced.

This period was excluded from the time series analysis to account for the duration of pregnancy. We estimated the pre-BB and post-BB average quarterly rates using the segmented regression models and compared the post-BB rates with the expected rates post, calculated from the model as the projection of pre-BB trends under the assumption that no intervention occurred [7]. All analyses were performed using the statistical software SAS version 9. We included , birth admissions in this study that occurred from July to December in WA.

Figure 1 shows the quarterly birth rates from July to December in WA including the pre-BB trend-line projected until , which represents the expected rates for the post period assuming the policy had not been introduced. The birth rates in WA rose from Vertical lines represent the period of the baby bonus implementation April March that was excluded from the analysis.

Horizontal line represents the trend line of the pre-baby bonus period, which was projected until assuming that no policy implementation occurred. The average quarterly birth rates for the pre-BB and post-BB periods and the differences between the post-BB rates and the rates that would have been expected at the same time had the policy not occurred post are presented in Tables 1 and 2.

Following the baby bonus introduction, overall birth rates increased by When the change in birth rates was estimated separately by maternal demographics Table 1 , the results showed that relative to expected rates, this increase was greatest in mothers aged 20—24 years Furthermore, when the birth rates were calculated separately by birth characteristics Table 2 , the overall birth rate increase was greatest in mothers having a third or a fourth child 1.

Interestingly, birth rates to private patients decreased by 4. Minimal difference was seen in the birth rate increase between mothers living in areas of high or low SES, relative to expected rates. In this study we investigated the influence of the Australian baby bonus introduction on birth rates in WA. Our results indicated that the baby bonus may have served as an incentive particularly for women aged 20—24, women having their third or fourth child and women living in outer regional and remote areas.

We found that the increase in birth rates following the baby bonus was greatest in mothers who gave birth in public hospitals or as public patients, for mothers who gave birth vaginally, but with assistance, and for infants who stayed less than four days in hospital following birth. This study used population-based, routinely collected administrative hospital and birth data from WA. We were able to study almost the complete birth information in WA for the time period under study since we received de-identified data from the WA Department of Health for Despite obvious strengths relating to the population-based design, we cannot be certain that our findings are due to the baby bonus implementation alone.

Also, information regarding the proportion of women who applied to receive the baby bonus maternity payment was not available for this study. It is likely however that the majority of mothers eligible for this payment did apply since information pertaining to this payment is widely available at birthing hospitals. Three scientific articles have been published reporting on the effects of the baby bonus introduction on birth rates in Australia [3] , [4] , [5].

Lain et al. Langridge et al. Our findings supported these previous findings, although we found only a minimal difference in birth rate increase between high and low SES areas, with a tendency towards a higher birth rate increase in high SES areas.

Our findings indicate that the baby bonus may have served as an incentive particularly for women aged 20—24, women having their third or fourth child and women living in outer regional and remote areas of Australia. Given that younger women are less likely to hold PHI than older women [11] and that private hospitals are relatively uncommon in remote Australia [12] , it is perhaps not surprising that the birth rate increase was particularly evident for public patients whereas birth rates in private patients decreased.

Our findings also showed that vaginal deliveries, caesareans with labour and births with shorter hospitals stays increased, whereas caesareans without labour and births with longer hospitals stays decreased. These findings are likely to reflect the much lower rate of caesarean deliveries without labour in public hospitals compared with private [11]. Furthermore, previous studies have found that length of hospital stay following birth is generally shorter in public hospitals than private hospitals in Australia [13] , [14] , as well as for other forms of midwifery-led care internationally [15].

It is also likely that our findings are due to the lower probability of other obstetrics interventions in the public sector since early postnatal discharge has been found to be associated with lower levels of obstetric intervention [14]. Public hospitals in Australia have been under pressure during the last couple of decades with medical workforce shortages including shortages of midwives and obstetricians [16] , [17].

In an attempt to address the decline in PHI memberships among the Australian population and thus relieve pressure on public hospitals the then Australian government introduced strong tax-incentives and penalties on PHI premiums if taken out after 30 years of age in — to encourage the uptake of PHI [18] , [19].

Our previous findings showing a decline in birth rates for public patients and an increase in birth rates for private patients after — [20] support previous findings reporting that these policy reforms appear to have been successful in relieving the pressure on public hospitals, particularly among more affluent Australians [21].

According to our current findings however, it appears that the baby bonus introduction may have counteracted the success of the — policy reforms by increasing the pressure on Australian birthing public hospitals, particularly in outer regional and remote areas. Our results indicate that following the introduction of the baby bonus maternity payment in Australia in , birth rates increased particularly in mothers aged 20—24, mothers having their third or fourth child and mothers living in outer regional and remote areas.

The birth rate also increased for mothers giving birth in public hospitals. Considering the reported pressure on Australian public hospitals and ongoing staff shortages, including difficulty in recruiting and retaining obstetricians in rural areas [16] , the policy reform may have contributed to and increased the pressure and staff shortages in Australian public hospitals. Analyzed the data: KE. After ten years working at the ABS, Glenn's deep knowledge of the Census has been a crucial input in the development of our community profiles.

These tools help everyday people uncover the rich and important stories about our communities that are often hidden deep in the Census data. Glenn is also our most prolific blogger - if you're reading this, you've just finished reading one of his blogs. Take a quick look at the front page of our blog and you'll no doubt find more of Glenn's latest work. As a client manager, Glenn travels the country giving sought-after briefings to councils and communities these are also great opportunities for Glenn to tend to his rankings in Geolocation games such as Munzee and Geocaching.

Thanks Glen for this article. It gave me a clear insight into some of the reasons why women are and are not having children. Your writing style in presenting statistics was fresh and enlightening. I hope to reference some of your information in my essay. Regards Kate Jenkins. I am a result of this baby bonus…… how do u think it feels being told you were brought to this world to increase the birth rate and so my parents could get a bit of cash.

This has always caused an argument between me and my parents. Thanks for your comment Prince! While it may have been an additional incentive which pushed the birth rate higher there are a variety of factors which would have lead to it. The additional income can also provide a bit of economic support and confidence to be able to have children in uncertain economic times. Your email address will not be published.

Is the baby bonus responsible for the high birth rate in Australia?