Reports and Submissions
Read the latest reports and submissions from FCVic on a range of topics significant to financial counsellors, consumer advocates and the wider community.
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Submission to the National Tax Clinic Program – Consultation Paper
- Published: 14 February 2024
- Topics: Small Business, Taxation
FCVic strongly supports the National Tax Clinic Program and welcomes the commitment to expand the number of clinics by 5 from 1 January 2025.
We recognise the significant challenges faced by small business owners and vulnerable individuals in financial difficulty, when their tax affairs are not up to date. In the case of small business owners, this can result in a business’ tax liability being imposed on the individual owner and may restrict a business owner’s access to Centrelink benefits if business tax returns are outstanding. In those cases, small business owners unable to afford the cost of a tax accountant are reliant on the support provided through the Tax Clinics.
We acknowledge the key activities of the National Tax Clinic program. We believe that the program must primarily address the need for small business owners to lodge outstanding tax returns.
Our submission to the National Tax Clinic Program – Consultation Paper provides feedback and recommendations to ensure the program can best and support financially vulnerable individuals and small businesses.
Submission to the next stage in Victoria’s work to end family violence
- Published: 2 February 2024
- Topics: Family Violence
Financial Counselling Victoria welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to the consultation on the Victorian State Government’s Third Action Plan to End Family Violence as part of Victoria’s 10-Year Plan for Change.
A community-wide approach is integral in achieving the vision that all Victorians are safe, thriving and living free from family and sexual violence and abuse. The lens we bring to this submission is to create a greater understanding of the complexities and breadth financial and service systems abuse, ongoing gender inequality and the integral role financial counsellors play in working with victim-survivors, adults using family violence and across the family violence service system.
Submission to the Review of Financial Wellbeing and Capability Programs
- Published: 2 February 2024
FCVic has provided a submission into the Department of Social Services’ Review of Financial Wellbeing and Capability Programs. Our submission focuses on areas that are relevant to our work in Victoria. We acknowledge the importance of long-term funding and note the Department’s extended funding for the sector announced recently.
Submission to the General Insurance Code Governance Committee 2024/25 Monitoring and Compliance Priorities consultation
- Published: 30 January 2024
- Topics: Disaster Recovery, Insurance
FCVic has made a submission to the General Insurance Code Governance Committee’s consultation on its 2024-25 Monitoring and Compliance Priorities.
The submission drew on the experiences and insights of disaster recovery financial counsellors, and relate to the Code Part 9: Supporting customers experiencing vulnerability; Part 8: Making a Claim, and Part 12: Access to information.
Financial counsellors have reported to FCVic on widespread poor practice by insurers, specifically around treatment of vulnerability of customers and transparency during claims processes. The failure of Code subscribers to recognise and appropriately support customers following these types of extreme events has exacerbated insurance customers’ distress and impeded their recovery. This places insurers at risk of causing additional harm and detriment to their customers.
Our submission makes a number of recommendations to the Code Governance Committee to prioritise these parts of the Code, and to work with the financial counselling sector to improve insurer practices.
Joint submission to the Victorian Default Offer Review 2024-2025
- Published: 21 December 2023
- Topics: Utilities
This submission represents the shared view of leading Victorian community sector organisations and energy consumer advocates. This a joint submission made by the Victorian Council of Social Service, the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Consumer Action Law Centre, Council of the Ageing Victoria, Energy Consumers Australia, Financial Counselling Victoria, and Good Shepherd. This group brings a deep knowledge of people’s experiences navigating the Victorian electricity market and the impacts of energy hardship and poverty. Collectively, we work towards a Victoria free from all forms of hardship, where everybody can experience genuine wellbeing.
We believe that the Victorian Default Offer (VDO) has provided an important safeguard for consumers that are unable or unwilling to engage with the electricity retail market, a key benchmark price for market offers, and since September 2020, a crucial maximum price for embedded network customers. Taken together, VDO customers and those on embedded networks number over 400,000 households, businesses, and individuals.1 We strongly support the VDO playing these roles and believe it should continue to do so, while being kept at the lowest reasonable price.
However, given that the Essential Services Commission (ESC) has proposed to use generally the same methodologies as in past reviews for the 2024-2025 period, our submission identifies where there remains work to be done, and VDO cost-stack components where key assumptions and choices should be reconsidered.
Submission to the 2024/25 Victorian State Budget
- Published: 4 December 2023
Financial Counselling Victoria is pleased to present our submission to the 2024/25 Victorian State Budget.
Our strategic recommendations for the 2024/25 Victorian State Budget aim to:
- strengthen the financial counselling sector’s sustainability,
- enhance service integration across diverse sectors, and
- improve access to financial counselling for vulnerable cohorts.
Notably, these recommendations envision a future where early interventions and coordinated efforts lead to reduced financial stress and improved outcomes for all Victorians.