The budget will cost a two-parent family with two primary school children on $60,000 around $84 per week, a new analysis reveals.

Prepared by independent experts at the Australian National University and dealing only with the changes to family payments, its findings broadly back those of modelling conducted commissioned by the Labor Party from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling.

The Centre found families with children on the lowest incomes would bear the brunt of the cuts in the Coalition's first two budgets, while high income families would see their disposable incomes rise slightly over the next four years.

The analysis from academics Peter Whiteford and Daniel Nethery limits itself to the changes to family tax benefits confirmed in this year's budget.

They freeze benefits for two years, freeze thresholds for three years, cut and freeze supplements, and remove Family Tax Benefit B for children aged six and over, introducing a smaller supplement in its place.

The experts examined the effect on incomes in the 2017-18 financial year, when the freezes on indexation begin to bite.

By then a one-parent family with one child aged three on a private income of $20,000 would have lost $10.10 per week as a result of the changes. Such a family on $60,000 would have lost 20.75 per week, and such a family on $100,000 would have lost nothing. A one-parent family with two children aged eight and 11 would have lost $53.19 per week on a private income of $60,000 and $13.97 on a private income of $100,000.

Two-parent families earning $80,000 with two primary school aged children would lose $77.90 per week whereas those on a combined income of $100,000 would lose $20.26.

The ANU experts acknowledge that their figures are maximum losses that may be offset by other measures in the budget. In particular they don't take account of promised boost in child care payments. But they point out that the childcare package will cost the government $4.4 billion over four years while the family tax benefit cuts will save it $9 billion, suggesting that for most people the cut in family tax benefits will overwhelm the benefit of higher childcare payments.

"Clearly, the total volume of assistance for families is going down," Professor Whiteford said. "To assess the overall household impact of the budget, it is necessary to balance who wins from the generally progressive child care assistance proposals versus who loses from last year's and the new savings proposals."

In parliament Prime Minister Abbott ridiculed the ANU analysis mistakenly dismissing it as "old".

"There has been no new analysis and the analysis that the shadow minister refers to is the old analysis and the old analysis did not actually analyse the 2015 budget," he said.

"The analysis in question failed to take into account the incentives to move from welfare to work."

Both reports fail to take into account incentive of cutting benefits as does the budget itself in accordance with standard practice.

The ANU tables have been prepared in the same form as those presented in every budget since 2005 except for the last two, usually in a table entitled "detailed family outcomes". In 2014 Treasurer Joe Hockey excluded the table from his first budget and did so again this year.

Who's hit

Projected change in real disposable income as a result of the family tax benefit measures in the budget

Single parent on private income of $20,000, 3 year old child 
Loss per week $10.10 (1.3% of disposable income)

Single parent on $60,000, one child aged 3
Loss per week $20.75 (2% of disposable income)

Single parent on $20,000, two children aged 8 and 11
Loss per week: $41.24 (5.7% of disposable income)

Single parent on $60,000, two children aged 8 and 11
Loss per week $53.19 (4.7% of disposable income)

Two parent family on $60,000, one child aged 3
Loss per week $21.86 (2.1% of disposable income)

Two parent family on $60,000, two children aged 8 and 11
Loss per week $84.43 (7.4% of disposable income)

Two parent family on $60,000, one child aged 14
Loss per week $79.61 (7.5% of disposable income)

The figures are calculated for the 2017-18 tax year by which time the indexation freezes will have taken hold. They are in 2015 dollars.

Source: Peter Whiteford and Daniel Nethery, ANU Crawford School of Government