The Welfare of Young People

Abstract

The welfare of young people has been one of the main concerns in social policy over the past two decades and at the forefront of public debate on social issues, but it is not easy to decide which age groups may be taken to constitute ‘youth’. For example, the operational parameters employed by the Youth Affairs Council of Australia are 12–25 years, but the definition used by the Commonwealth Office of Youth Affairs and by the United Nations’ International Youth Year Secretariat is 15–24 years. The rationale for using those or other parameters is not always clear. The age of 12 years is currently associated with entry into secondary schooling and 15 is the school-leaving age in all states except Tasmania where it is 16 years. At the age of 24 young people may still be eligible for programmes such as the Community Youth Support Scheme (CYSS), and at 25 a young person is considered independent from his or her parents for the purpose of the Commonwealth educational allowance (AUSTUDY) unless their independence is established earlier.