Submission to the Inquiry into Victoria’s Response to COVID-19
FCVic’s submission to the Inquiry into Victoria’s Response to COVID-19 is focused on the specific and looming challenges for the financial counselling sector and its capacity to respond effectively to community needs resulting from the COVID-19 situation.
Financial counsellors are key frontline workers dealing with hardship issues, akin to the role of healthcare workers in the public health frontline with COVID 19. However the scale of hardship coming will dwarf the capacity of a sector in which there are currently only about 250 financial counsellors currently practising in Victoria.
If the looming financial crisis is viewed through a public health lens, it should be clear that planning and preparation needs to begin now, before the crisis hits.