Data quality |
Data quality statement summary: | Description Data are provided annually to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) by jurisdictions and are sourced from community housing organisations (CHOs) and from the jurisdiction’s administrative systems. The annual data collection captures information about CHOs, the dwellings and tenancy rental units they manage, households on the waiting list, and the tenants and households assisted. Limited financial information from the previous financial year is also collected. Summary - All states and territories provide the AIHW with community housing data from their administrative systems. The AIHW compiles their data for national reporting in the Report on government services (RoGS). The data are also published in AIHW reports.
- Additionally, unit record community housing data are collected from CHOs via an Excel tool managed by the AIHW. In New South Wales, data are collected from CHOs quarterly via a cloud-based tool managed by the Department of Communities and Justice. The Northern Territory does not use the AIHW-managed tool and does not provide any unit record household data.
- Care is required when comparing outputs across states and territories. Differences in the data collected, including which records are included or excluded from a calculation can affect the coherence of the outputs. Coherence over time has been affected by changes in methodology (see ‘coherence’ section for details).
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Institutional environment: | The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is an independent corporate Commonwealth entity under the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 (AIHW Act), governed by a management board and accountable to the Australian Parliament through the Health portfolio. The AIHW is a nationally recognised information management agency. Its purpose is to create authoritative and accessible information and statistics that inform decisions and improve the health and welfare of all Australians. Compliance with the confidentiality requirements in the AIHW Act, the Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and AIHW's data governance arrangements ensures that the AIHW is well positioned to release information for public benefit while protecting the identity of individuals and organisations. For further information, see the AIHW website, which includes details about the AIHW's governance and role and strategic goals. The AIHW receives, compiles, edits and verifies the data in collaboration with states and territories. The finalised data sets are signed off by the states and territories and used by the AIHW for reporting, analysis and approved ad hoc data requests. Requests for jurisdiction-level data releases must be signed off by the relevant state or territory. |
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Timeliness: | Data are collected annually. The reference period for this collection is the 2022–23 financial year. The collection is mostly a 30 June 2023 snapshot, but also captures information regarding new households assisted during 2022–23. Limited financial information from the 2021–22 financial year is also collected. |
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Accessibility: | Data are reported in the AIHW's annual Housing assistance in Australia reports and the Productivity Commission's annual Report on government services. Users can request additional disaggregation of data which are not available online or in reports (subject to the AIHW's confidentiality policy and state and territory approval) via the AIHW’s online data request system. Depending on the nature of the request, access to unpublished data may also incur costs or require approval from the AIHW Ethics Committee. General enquiries about AIHW publications can be directed to [email protected]. |
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Interpretability: | Metadata and definitions relating to this data source can be found in the Community housing data set specification 2018-. Supplementary information can be found in the housing collection data manuals which are available upon request from [email protected]. |
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Relevance: | The scope of community housing, for the purpose of this collection, includes all tenancy rental units under the management of a CHO, excluding Indigenous CHOs. Dwellings are excluded where the tenancy is managed by the state/territory housing authority or by a specialist homelessness services agency. Additional jurisdiction-specific inclusions and exclusions also apply. These jurisdiction-specific inclusions and exclusions reflect a number of factors including differences in the definition of community housing across jurisdictional legislation; difficulties in identifying some organisations among those that are not registered or funded by the state/territory housing authority; and some inconsistencies in reporting, such as the inclusion of transitional housing and National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) dwellings. The data collected by the jurisdictions conform well in terms of reference period. However, due to the jurisdiction-specific inclusions and exclusions, the data do not conform well in terms of organisation coverage and reporting at a national level. New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory supply unit record level data. These data include details on individuals, organisations, dwellings and associated tenancies of the CHOs that provided data. Queensland supplies unit record data supplemented by aggregate administrative data for funded CHOs, properties and current waitlist applications. The Northern Territory submits aggregate data, which includes dwelling- and organisational-level data, but not information on individual tenancies or persons. The data are highly relevant for monitoring trends in the number of households assisted in community housing. The data are used for many purposes, including by policymakers to evaluate both the circumstances of tenants in community housing dwellings and the amount of rent paid by tenants relative to their income; and to assess the efficiency of CHOs in providing dwellings. |
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Accuracy: | The information was sourced by state/territory housing authorities from CHOs and/or from administrative records held by them. Data are incomplete for some jurisdictions due to non-reporting or under-reporting by CHOs. Response rates are calculated based on the total number of CHOs in scope for national reporting. However, in some jurisdictions, not all the in-scope CHOs are requested to provide data to the collection. CHOs may be excluded for a range of reasons including the size of the organisation or contractual arrangements. These exclusions are not accounted for in the response rate. The response rate differs between jurisdictions, as outlined below: State/territory | Coverage | New South Wales | Of the 140 CHOs in scope, 34 provided data accounting for 94% of the total dwelling portfolio. A similar coverage rate was observed in 2021–22. | Victoria | Of the 71 CHOs in scope, 56 provided data. This was an increase from the 53 CHOs that provided data in 2021–22. Information regarding dwellings for which CHOs did not provide unit record data was not reported for 2022–23 so the coverage rate cannot be calculated by the AIHW. | Queensland | Of the 118 CHOs in scope, 69 provided data accounting for 95% of the total dwelling portfolio. A similar coverage rate was observed in 2021–22. | Western Australia | Of the 27 registered CHOs in scope, 26 provided data, an increase from 22 in 2021–22. Information regarding dwellings for which CHOs did not provide unit record data was not reported for 2022–23 so the coverage rate cannot be calculated by the AIHW. | South Australia | Of the 23 CHOs in scope, 22 provided data accounting for nearly 100% of the total dwelling portfolio. Due to the merging of some organisations, this is a decrease from 26 organisations (100% of the total dwelling portfolio) in 2021–22. | Tasmania | Of the 64 CHOs in scope, 45 provided data. This was an increase from the 39 CHOs that provided data in 2021–22. Information regarding dwellings for which CHOs did not provide unit record data was not reported for 2022–23 so the coverage rate cannot be calculated by the AIHW. | Australian Capital Territory | All 9 community housing organisations provided data covering 100% of the total dwelling portfolio. Due to the addition of 2 organisations, this is an increase from the 7 CHOs (100% of the total dwelling portfolio) in 2021–22. | Northern Territory | Only administrative data were provided for 40 CHOs. Administrative data were provided for 39 CHOs in 2021–22. |
There are some accuracy issues with the data collected, more specifically: - The community housing organisation and state/territory housing authority administrative systems from which this collection are drawn have inaccuracies to varying degrees including missing data, inconsistent data, out-of-date data and data coding or recording errors.
- Not all organisations capture and report all data items – data may not be collected and reported in a manner consistent with national data definitions.
- For some organisations, some information may be self-identified and not reported under eligibility requirements for some programs (for example, Indigenous status and disability information).
- The sum of ‘tenancy rental units by remoteness’ may differ to ‘total tenancy rental units’ due to missing postcode information, the exclusion of postcodes belonging to PO boxes, mismatches between postcode and remoteness concordance files and proportioning of postcodes across remoteness areas (as many postcodes belong to more than one remoteness area).
- There are inconsistencies across jurisdictions in the reporting of National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) properties managed by community housing organisations. Data for these properties are unavailable for Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.
- Waitlist data are reported separately for each social housing program. All states and territories have an integrated waitlist; therefore, applicants are generally counted once irrespective of the number of programs for which they are applying. In some states and territories, CHOs may additionally maintain and allocate housing to households on their own waiting list. In New South Wales and Victoria, waitlist information for all social housing programs is reported in the Public Housing (PH) & State Owned and Managed Indigenous Housing (SOMIH) collections.
State- and territory-specific issues: New South Wales - New South Wales does not supply waitlist information in the CH collection. All social housing waitlist information is reported in the PH & SOMIH collections.
- New South Wales reports dwellings according to the assistance type provided to the residents. Therefore, ‘boarding/rooming house’ and ‘joint venture’ are not reported against the ‘program type’ variable.
Victoria - Waitlist data relate to information capture by community housing organisations and not the Victorian Housing Register. Information from the register is reported in the PH collection.
Queensland - As a result of Queensland’s integrated waitlist, all current waitlist applications were included in the CH collection regardless of the housing programs applied for. As applicants can be eligible for multiple housing programs, caution should be used when comparing waitlist totals due to overlap.
- Care is advised when reviewing data for number of tenancies. Where no tenancy data has been provided for occupied dwellings, one tenancy per dwelling has been assigned.
Western Australia - Care is advised when reviewing data for overcrowding due to inconsistencies in the data reported.
- Care is advised when reviewing data for rent charged as:
- some CHOs charge a flat fee for board or lodging and may include support care, utility and communal costs.
- some rents are set as a fixed percentage of the market rent rather than using incomes to calculate the rent payable.
- some CHOs cannot separate Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) out of income or rent.
Australian Capital Territory - Integrated waitlist data are unable to differentiate between new applicants and applicants requesting a transfer. The use of separate community housing organisation-managed waiting lists has grown over time. Consequently, some households on a waiting list may be counted more than once.
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Coherence: | States and territories may publish their own analysis of community housing data which may vary in scope from this collection. Data for individual states and territories may not be comparable across reporting periods, nor with other social housing sectors due to variability in the state and territory government programs reported in the community housing data collection, coverage and completeness rates, and other data quality issues. Differences between states and territories concerning incomplete or missing information, out-of-date information and coding errors can affect the coherence of the outputs. Coherence over time has also been affected by changes in methodology: - For 2022–23, remoteness area (RA) is determined using a concordance between 2022 postcodes and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 RA classification. From 2018–19 to 2021–22, a concordance between 2018 postcodes and the ASGS 2016 RA classification was used. For 2017–18, a concordance between 2017 postcodes and the ASGS 2016 RA classification was used. Previous years used a concordance between 2012 postcodes and the ASGS 2011 RA classification. Therefore, care is required when comparing remoteness data across time.
- Comparisons of waitlist data prior to 2010–11 should not be made with data from subsequent years due to the implementation of integrated waitlists in some jurisdictions. In May 2009, Housing Ministers agreed to integrate public and community housing waiting lists in all jurisdictions by July 2011. All jurisdictions have their own integrated waiting list. In Tasmania, the 4 main community housing providers use a shared Housing Register (public and community housing) to select tenants. The other smaller providers have no requirement to use this register and therefore may have their own waitlists.
- Measurements using low income cannot be directly compared with low-income measures produced prior to 2013–14 due to a change in methodology. From 2013–14 onwards, low-income cut-offs were obtained from the biennial ABS Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). From 2021–22, low-income cut-offs are based on 2019–20 SIH results. Care is required when comparing low-income measures over time.
- Due to turnover of staff at some CHOs and variation in coding practices, the classification of some program types and dwelling types varies from year to year. Therefore, care is advised when comparing data across years.
State- and territory-specific issues: New South Wales - From 2013–14, New South Wales has provided unit record data. Therefore, data prior to this are not comparable.
- New South Wales reported NRAS dwellings for the first time in 2015–16.
- For 2015–16 and 2016–17, NRAS dwellings were excluded from the calculation of the occupancy rate.
- Data for additional affordable housing properties have been included for the first time from 2016–17.
- In 2017–18, ‘other’ community housing program dwellings were reported for the first time. In New South Wales, ‘other’ refers to non-NRAS affordable housing.
- In 2018–19, data quality for income in comparison to rent charged improved.
- In 2019–20, some CHOs changed the way they reported transitional housing. This affected program type and overcrowding calculations.
- In 2021–22, accuracy in recording the number of boarding/rooming/lodging house rooms improved resulting in an increase in these dwelling types.
Victoria - In 2016–17, reduced returns from CHOs resulted in a decrease in net recurrent costs per unit and total rents charged. Therefore, care is advised when comparing data for 2016–17 with previous years.
- Commencing in 2016–17, community housing applications were transferred to the Victorian Housing Register which integrated public and community housing waiting lists. Housing applications were reviewed to remove those that were duplicates, inaccurate or out of date. This could have contributed to the decrease in waitlist numbers in 2016–17. This exercise was completed in 2019–20. Most CHOs now use the common waitlist resulting in a further decrease in waitlist numbers. From 2019–20, waitlist data relate to information captured by community housing organisations and not the Victorian Housing Register.
- In 2018–19, a reporting error by one CHO affected a large number of dwellings which led to inflated underutilisation figures for the state.
- In 2018–19 and 2019–20, for one CHO, program type was coded to ‘other’ by default.
Queensland - Changes in methodology in 2012–13 have resulted in improvements in the identification of households containing a member identifying as Indigenous, and/or having a disability and/or from a non-English speaking background.
- From 2013–14, Affordable Housing Program data have been provided. These data were not available in prior collection periods.
- Queensland provided unit record data for the first time in 2015–16. This was supplemented by aggregate administrative data for funded organisations, properties and current waitlist applications. Data prior to this are therefore not comparable.
- From 2015–16, CH program administration and regulation costs were included. Previously, only rates and maintenance paid by the Department of Housing and Public Works were reported.
- In 2016–17, due to a change in policy, all applicants on the housing waitlist for social rental housing were counted, whereas in previous years only those listed for community housing were counted. Therefore, data for 2016–17 onwards are not comparable with that of previous years.
- Since 2016–17, data have only been provided for current tenancies and households as at 30 June. Therefore, care is advised when comparing data for 2016–17 onwards with that of previous years.
- In November 2017, Queensland adopted a new administrative system for property management. As a result, there has been a considerable amount of data cleaning, resulting in an overall reduction in numbers.
- There was a major system change in 2019–20. Caution should be used when comparing 2019–20 data with that of previous years.
- From 2020–21, pre-1996 rental units were included in the collection, although tenancy data are not reported for these units. Prior to this, these units were excluded.
- From 2020–21, community housing organisations that managed pre-1996 rental units only were included in the collection. Prior to this, these organisations were excluded.
Western Australia - From 2014–15, methodological changes have resulted in better identification of households with Indigenous members.
- Errors have occurred when CRA has been considered as household income and used in the calculation of rent. This issue has been compounded when CRA has not been able to be separated from either household income or rent charged. While this has improved since 2014–15, some organisations are unable to separate CRA from household income, therefore caution should be taken when interpreting data pertaining to rent charged and gross weekly income.
- From 2018–19, the scope of this collection is all CHOs registered under the new Community Housing Regulatory Framework as well as any CHOs that were registered under the old framework but not under the current framework.
- In 2019–20, one CHO included wages for the first time in their provider net recurrent costs, resulting in an increase in total provider net recurrent costs.
- In 2019–20, one CHO reported household income for the first time.
South Australia - Prior to 2012–13, the waitlist data reported were based solely on separate waitlists from each CHO. Applicants for NRAS properties were registered on a separate waitlist and not reported. Since 2012–13, waitlist data have been reported for the total number of applicants for community housing and affordable housing via the Community Housing Register.
- From 2014–15, methodological improvements have resulted in better identification of households with Indigenous members.
- In 2016–17, a single housing register was implemented for public and community housing resulting in an increase in the number of applicants on the waiting list. Therefore, caution is advised when comparing data from 2016–17 onwards with previous years.
- From 2018–19, transitional housing data were included.
- In 2019–20, due to an internal policy change, there has been a large increase in the identification of households that were homeless at the time of allocation.
- There was a large increase in administrator net recurrent costs in 2021–22 due to the implementation of a new activity-based costing methodology.
- In 2021–22, data quality for income data improved due to a South Australia directive to CHOs. Recent incomes were requested for households that CHOs previously did not report up-to-date incomes for (especially the ones that pay market rent). If the income was unknown, CHOs recorded the income as unknown instead of system-generated random values.
- In 2021–22, identification of Indigenous households and greatest need households improved.
- In February 2021, data from CHOs were migrated into South Australia’s single housing register (SHR) and applicants can be eligible for more than one housing program. Assessment details of households on the PH register were migrated into their CH application on the SHR, impacting the greatest need indicators.
Tasmania - From 2015–16 onwards, waitlist data represents information captured by the CHOs and not the shared waitlist. Therefore, care is advised when comparing waitlist data from 2015–16 onwards with that of previous years.
- In 2018–19, data received from CHOs contained a large number of errors and a high proportion of ‘unknown’ data. While substantial data cleaning was undertaken, it is likely that data quality issues still exist.
- The recording of boarding units and rooms has varied across years. This may impact on counts of dwellings and/or tenancy (rental) units.
Australian Capital Territory - From 2018–19, data for applicants for transfer relate to information captured by community housing organisations and not the shared waitlist.
- In 2018–19, rent was not reported for some tenants (with ending tenancies) who had a negative rent payment (refund) in the last week of the financial year.
- In 2020–21 and 2021–22, ACT eviction moratoriums in response to COVID-19 meant that several community housing organisations did not update income details.
- In 2021–22, the decrease in the number of special needs households was due to data quality issues for one CHO around identifying households with a member with disability.
Northern Territory - A review of portfolios in 2014–15 resulted in better identification of community housing dwellings.
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Source and reference attributes |
Submitting organisation: | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare |
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Relational attributes |
Related metadata references: | |
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