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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Response to Ministerial Guidelines Relating to Payment of Rates and Charges
- Published: 15 September 2023
- Topics: Local Councils
FCVic has made a response to the draft Ministerial Guidelines Relating to Payment of Rates and Charges.
Based on our review of the documentation provided in relation to the consultation, FCVic recommends that the draft Ministerial Guidelines be re-examined to better take account of the advice provided by the ESC.
We further recommend that redrafting of the Ministerial Guidelines be done in consultation with key stakeholders, including FCVic and Victorian financial counsellors.
Submission to the Victorian Household Concessions Program Assessment
- Published: 23 June 2023
FCVic has made a response to the Victorian Household Concessions Program assessment.
Financial counsellors in Victoria work closely with concession card holders and have considerable insight into the impacts and effectiveness of the concessions program. Our response to the assessment draws on the professional observations and experiences of
Victorian financial counsellors.
The response highlights areas of the program which could be improved to remove barriers to access for some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged community groups, including older people, CALD community members, and family violence victim-survivors.
Submission to inquiry into the extent and nature of poverty in Australia
- Published: 2 February 2023
- Topics: Social Security and Centrelink
FCVic has made a submission to the inquiry into the extent and nature of poverty in Australia.
This submission, drawing on client experiences and our members’ professional observations, will focus on the following issue areas:
- Financialisation, credit and debt
- Social Security system
- Family Violence
- Mental Health
- Housing
- Digital access gap
- Energy hardship
- Migrants and refugees
- Financial literacy and capability
FCVic makes the following recommendations to the Inquiry as steps that will significantly and quickly reduce the individual and community burdens from widespread, preventable poverty.
Submission to the General Insurance Code Governance Committee Monitoring and Compliance Priorities consultation
- Published: 31 January 2023
- Topics: Disaster Recovery, Insurance
FCVic has made a submission to the General Insurance Code Governance Committee’s consultation on its 2023-24 Monitoring and Compliance Priorities.
The submission drew on the experiences and insights of disaster recovery financial counsellors, and focused on Parts 9 & 10 of the General Insurance Code, which deal with customers experiencing vulnerability and financial hardship.
Through their work, disaster recovery financial counsellors have identified widespread poor behaviour by insurers that breach the provisions of the Code around vulnerability and hardship. The failure of insurers to recognise and appropriately support customers experiencing vulnerability or hardship has been shown to exacerbate customers’ distress and – in a post-disaster context – impede their recovery.
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 sector to improve insurer practices.
FCVic Strategic Plan 2022-25
- Published: 23 October 2022
The FCVic Board has adopted its 3-year Strategic Plan for 2022-2025.
Developed through a consultative process with FCVic members, the Strategic Plan articulates the priority areas of focus for our organisation, and our sector, as we move towards our vision:
A fairer and more equitable society with improved community wellbeing and better lives for vulnerable people.
Following the direction of our expiring Strategic Plan of the past three years, the new plan continues the aim of building our sector capacity to respond to new and increased community needs, while protecting our workforce from burnout and work-related stress.
FCVic’s current and recent projects have enabled us to connect more closely with other sectors and organisations to demonstrate the benefits of financial counselling for the communities they support. The Strategic Plan reflects our commitment to strengthening those relationships through collaborative initiatives that allow us to achieve our social justice objectives.
As always, FCVic remains driven and led by its members – professionals with strong ethics and high-quality practice standards. As our profession reaches a new stage in its maturation, the Strategic Plan strives for financial counsellors to be recognised and respected, with opportunities for growth and leadership.
The past three years have been heavy with challenges, which the financial counselling sector has been adaptive to respond to. Our new Strategic Plan maintains a positive outlook for the future and what we can achieve.
We invite you to read the FCVic Strategic Plan 2022-2025.
Short-changed: The ongoing costs of an inadequate JobSeeker Payment
- Published: 17 October 2022
- Topics: Social Security and Centrelink
Between March and June 2022, 90 people who were clients of financial counsellors shared their stories about trying to live on the JobSeeker Payment.
They also provided information about their weekly income and expenditure showing that it is simply impossible for many people to make ends meet on the current rate.
The costs resulting from this impossibility are borne directly by the most vulnerable in our community, facing destitution, declining health, homelessness and hunger, and also carried by overstretched emergency relief services, and by our service systems including justice, health and mental health.