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Income received without providing a current good or service in direct return, including specified public benefits.
Save conceptTransfer receipts are resources received without providing a current good or service of comparable value in direct return. In personal-income statistics, the term includes specified benefits and other current transfers under the accounting framework. Such receipts can support a household’s spending power even though they are not wages earned from current employment or revenue from producing something.
A transfer redistributes resources rather than recording a direct purchase of current output from the recipient. National accounts classify current transfers separately from payments for work, goods, services and assets. Government benefits are a prominent example, but the precise categories depend on the measure. Eligibility rules and payment schedules can change the amount received without a corresponding change in employment earnings.
Suppose a hypothetical retired person receives a pension benefit of 1,000 per month and earns 400 from part-time work. The benefit and the earnings can both support spending, but they represent different income sources. A one-off benefit increase can raise the relevant aggregate transfer receipts and even if the number of hours worked remains unchanged.
Not every payment described casually as a transfer is a current transfer receipt in national accounts. Moving money between a person’s own bank accounts does not create income, and selling an asset is different from receiving a benefit. Distinguish current transfers from capital transfers and from wages when explaining why an income statistic changed.
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