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.
Search:
Filter by topic:
Filter by document type:
Sort results:
FCVic Annual Report 2021-22
- Published: 19 September 2022
Read the FCVic Annual Report for 2021-22
Submission to the Victorian suicide prevention and response strategy
- Published: 12 September 2022
- Topics: Mental Health
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System recommended that the Victorian Government develop a new suicide prevention and response strategy. The strategy will take a whole-of-government and community-wide approach to better prevent and respond to suicide. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Division in the Department of Health issued a discussion paper as a starting point for collaboration and co-design of the new Victorian suicide prevention and response strategy.
Financial problems combine and interact with other contributory factors across all areas as a driver of suicide risk. Financial counsellors well understand from their practice that financial difficulties, debt, and hardship are important contributors to suicidality amongst the many groups of people they work with.
Drawing on financial counselling client experiences, our members’ professional observations and FCVic’s work with communities, our response to the discussion paper outlines key insights financial counselling can contribute to the development of a suicide prevention and response strategy, and includes several recommendations.
Submission to the Inquiry into Support for Older Victorians from Migrant and Refugee Backgrounds
- Published: 2 March 2022
- Topics: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities, Older Victorians
FCVic has made a submission to the Inquiry into Support for Older Victorians from Migrant and Refugee Backgrounds.
Drawing on client experiences, our members’ professional observations and FCVic’s work with communities, this submission raises several concerns about the adequacy and accessibility of support for older Victorians from migrants and refugee backgrounds, with a focus on financial support and the prevention of financial abuse.
Response to the draft National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032
- Published: 24 February 2022
- Topics: Family Violence
FCVic has made a submission to the consultation on the draft National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 (National Plan).
The National Plan provides an essential overarching roadmap to comprehensively addressing violence against women and children, with key insights articulated in the Foundation Principles and Four National Pillars, alongside essential provision for a dedicated Plan to be developed in consultation with First Nations people. However, there are some key areas in which the National Plan needs to be strengthened around issues of economic and financial abuse, and interlinked financial disadvantage for women and children.
Our submission makes the following recommendations:
- That the recommendations made by the House of Representatives Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence be incorporated into the National Plan across the corresponding pillars.
- That an additional focus area is included in Pillar One:
We recognise the critical role of government in:- preventing violence through fostering gender equality in the workplace
- designing programs and services that are safe, based on gender equality and recognition of design that will prevent misuse
- training all government frontline staff in family violence and how to ensure safety of clients.
- ensuring adequate and meaningful support is available in the form of a financial safety net through Services Australia
These responsibilities run across government functions and agencies, including Treasury, Home Affairs, ATO, Services Australia etc.
- That the full recommendations of Economic Justice Australia’s 2021 report Debt, Duress and Dob-Ins: Centrelink compliance processes and domestic violence be included in one or more focus areas in the National plan.
- That the National Plan provide for identifying and sharing excellence in state services addressing financial and economic security and safety for women and their children impacted by family violence so that best practice can be supported and implemented across Australia.
- That the National Plan add a new focus area to Pillar 3 that addresses impacts and needs in relation to financial hardship and vulnerability.
- That financial counselling and community legal centre peak bodies are represented in committees set up to implement the National Plan, and that the National Plan provide for the family violence service system to employ and integrate financial counsellors in service delivery, along with strengthened links to community legal centres. This should be done to ensure access to free advocacy and legal assistance for women and children experiencing financial and legal impacts (including property settlement) from family and domestic violence.
Submission to the cultural review of the adult custodial corrections system
- Published: 13 December 2021
- Topics: Prisons and the Justice System
The Victorian Government has commissioned an independent review into the culture of Victoria’s prison system which aims to ensure the prison system promotes rehabilitation, reduces recidivism, and caters to the needs of all prisoners to ensure the system improves community safety.
FCVic, in preparing its submission to the review, consulted extensively with our Prisons Network, a community of practice for financial counsellors servicing correctional facilities across Victoria, and drew from their casework experience.
The submission focuses on specific areas of concern in relation to safety in custody for vulnerable cohorts, and makes two recommendations:
- That all Victorian correctional facilities, including remand centres, provide all prisoners with access to financial counselling as an integral service from the commencement of their incarceration.
- That financial literacy and life skills programs run by financial counsellors are implemented at all Victorian prisons with options for remote delivery to accommodate public health directions.
Submission to the Essential Services Commission’s review of the implementation of the energy payment difficulty framework
- Published: 29 November 2021
- Topics: Utilities
After two years of implementation, the Essential Services Commission is reviewing the framework designed to support energy consumers facing payment difficulty.
FCVic’s submission responds to a selection of the key review questions the Commission is seeking feedback on, based on the experiences and insights of financial counsellors.