FCVic has provided feedback on AFCA’s joint consultation on General Insurance Approaches, highlighting the need for clearer communication and enhanced support for vulnerable consumers. Key recommendations include simplifying documents to improve accessibility, clarifying AFCA’s scope to better inform consumers, emphasising the role of advocates to reduce trauma, and acknowledging challenges in providing documentation, especially after natural disasters or in cases involving brokers. FCVic also urged AFCA to broaden its understanding of vulnerability, incorporating considerations such as family violence and the ongoing impacts of natural disasters, to ensure fair and equitable dispute resolution.

The FCVic Submission to the Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) Financial Counselling Services Review outlines critical recommendations for improving Victoria’s financial counselling sector. Responding to heightened demand and the complex challenges faced by financial counsellors, this submission advocates for strategic reforms to enhance service delivery, accessibility, and workforce sustainability. Key proposals include targeted funding for underserved communities, improved data systems, and flexible service models that integrate financial counselling with related services to streamline client support.

To build a robust and responsive sector, FCVic recommends five-year funding agreements, fair pay standards, and wellbeing initiatives for financial counsellors. Additionally, the submission urges a shift to outcomes-based reporting and enhanced technology to reduce administrative burdens, allowing counsellors to focus on impactful client interactions. These measures aim to create a sustainable financial counselling sector that can effectively meet community needs, helping Victorians navigate financial hardship and fostering long-term social resilience.

The FCVic Budget Submission for 2025-26 presents a comprehensive vision for strengthening Victoria’s financial counselling sector to better support individuals and families facing financial hardship. As economic pressures such as rising interest rates, rental unaffordability, and increased living costs continue to intensify, FCVic outlines targeted strategies to meet the needs of vulnerable Victorians. The submission advocates for sustained funding, specialised support services, and integrated community solutions to reduce financial distress and build resilience across the state.

With a focus on capacity-building and professionalisation, FCVic’s recommendations address key areas, including disaster recovery, support for small business owners, assistance for incarcerated individuals, and culturally sensitive services for First Nations communities. By investing in early intervention, education, and multi-disciplinary services, this submission aims to enhance the sector’s ability to respond effectively to current demands and prepare for future challenges.

In June 2022, we provided feedback to AUSTRAC on draft guidance, and we’re pleased to see our recommendations included, particularly those supporting people recently in prison and transgender, intersex, and gender-diverse individuals. This change aims to ease access to financial services, where identification barriers often restrict entry. We recommend adding prison case workers and reintegration officers as acceptable referees, especially given that many Victorian prisons lack financial counselling services. Additionally, we urge AUSTRAC to address individual “debanking” in its guidance, as disadvantaged individuals, not just businesses, sometimes face account closures despite posing no financial crime risk.

FCVic welcomed the opportunity to join several community service and consumer advocacy groups in contributing to the Submission to the Senate Economics References Committee about Financial Regulatory Framework and Home Ownership. This submission was led by the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) and Mortgage Stress Victoria and made on behalf of the following organisations:

• CHOICE
• Consumer Action Law Centre
• Financial Rights Legal Centre
• Financial Counselling Australia
• Consumer Credit Legal Service
• WEstjustice
• Economic Abuse Reference Group of Western Australia (EARGWA)
• Western Australia Consumer Advocacy Network (WACAN)