Financial counsellors at breaking point in Victoria as calls to National Debt Helpline skyrocket
Financial counselling services across the state are reporting unsustainable wait times as demand for assistance skyrockets amid rising interest rates, unaffordable rentals, soaring energy prices, and costly grocery bills.
In an open letter to Premier Jacinta Allan, Victoria’s leading community organisations are calling on the Victorian Government to urgently fund more financial counsellors to respond to worsening cost-of-living pressures.
“Financial counsellors provide free support and crucial assistance to thousands of Victorians each year, but growing demand has blown current wait times out to as long as two months,” said Financial Counselling Victoria Executive Officer, Zyl Hovenga-Wauchope.
“Lengthy waiting times like this in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis put families at serious risk and are unacceptable” he said.
Providers of financial counselling services are worried that the lengthy wait times not only make households vulnerable to power disconnections, repossessions, homelessness, and critical health problems, but the increased number of calls is leading financial counsellors themselves to become overburdened to the point of burnout.
“Financial counsellors provide a vital service which is desperately needed right now, but there’s only so much that can be done before our workforce is overwhelmed.
“This must be a priority for the new Allan Government. Please help,” Mr Hovenga-Wauchope said.
The open letter, signed by 36 community organisations and launched at Financial Counselling Victoria’s Annual Conference, urges the Victorian Government to:
- Immediately uplift financial counsellor workforce numbers;
- Resource the expansion of the workforce; and
- Commit to further grow the financial counselling workforce over the next three years.
In the first six months of this year, phone calls to the National Debt Helpline in Victoria increased by 47% compared to the same period last year. Financial counsellors are now seeing more and more middle-income earners who, for the first time, simply can’t afford to pay their bills.
“We can’t afford for things to get any worse,” says Mr Hovenga-Wauchope. “The workforce must grow to stabilise the demand and keep workloads at a safe, sustainable level for financial counsellors.”
Financial Counselling Australia CEO Fiona Guthrie said the fallout from the cost-of-living crunch had swamped financial counsellors right across the country, and particularly in Victoria.
“Rising interest rates combined with soaring food, fuel and energy prices have seen calls to the National Debt Helpline jump by up to 30 per cent since January, but in Victoria calls have gone up by as much as 47 per cent, compared with the same period last year,” Ms Guthrie said. “When it comes to financial hardship, people need solutions quickly and simply can’t be put onto weeks-long waiting lists. It’s essential that financial counselling services are properly resourced.”
At South East Community Links (SECL), Head of Financial Wellbeing Kay Dilger said the service is managing a growing wait list of people seeking assistance.
“Right now, at SECL, it’s a 10-12 week wait for financial counselling support, unless community members are facing repossession or eviction from their home,” said Ms Dilger. “Two years ago this wait was 2-3 weeks. The number of enquiries to our service is up by about 20% on last financial year. We are experiencing an economic crisis, and our service needs to be resourced to respond.”
“Every day, our financial counsellors are on the front line, helping people impacted by this once-in-a generation cost-of-living crisis. It is undeniable that they do a brilliant job, but they are not superhuman and the emotional toll of their work is being exacerbated by extra demand,” said Stephanie Tonkin, CEO Consumer Action Law Centre. “The support our financial counsellors give to callers is extremely valuable on so many levels, and extra support for them pays back in spades.”
Read the open letter here.
ENDS
Media contacts
Financial Counselling Victoria: Zyl Hovenga-Wauchope on 03 9663 2000 or [email protected]
Financial Counselling Australia: Mike Bruce on 0403 920 189 or [email protected]
South East Community Links: Kay Dilger on 0432 448 020 or [email protected]
Consumer Action Law Centre: Mark Pearce on 0413 299 567 or [email protected]