Reports & Submissions

FCVic welcomed the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the purpose, intent and adequacy of the Disability Support Pension (DSP) in close consultation with our Centrelink Working Group.

Financial counsellors in Victoria work with and represent large numbers of clients who interact with the Federal systems of support, in particular the DSP and JobSeeker, and have considerable insight into the problems people encounter in accessing those systems and making them work fairly and supportively. This submission, drawing on client experiences and our members’ professional observations, raises a number of concerns about the DSP failing to provide support to many vulnerable community members and people living with a disability.

Developed in consultation with the Gambling Issues Working Group, FCVic’s submission to the Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence outlines Crown Casino’s failures to take meaningful steps to reduce and minimise gambling harm have continued to cause significant harms to the Victorian community.

As the peak body for financial counsellors in Victoria, FCVic has had considerable and long-term feedback from our members raising concerns about clients experiencing harm from Crown Casino – either directly as a gambler, or as a family member or other person affected by gambling.

The major failings financial counsellors identify in Crown’s obligations to (and care for) its customers at risk of gambling harm include:

• Failure to effectively support patrons to establish and maintain self-exclusion arrangements
• Crown providing benefits, services or products to solicit increased customer gambling
• Crown ignoring evidence of customers experiencing gambling harm and inducing further losses

FCVic joined FCA and the other state financial counselling bodies in making a joint submission to the the Senate Economics Committee inquiry into the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Supporting Economic Recovery) Bill 2020.

In the submission, the financial counselling sector opposes the Federal Government’s Bill which proposes to remove responsible lending obligations for banks and other lenders. The submission cites examples of irresponsible lending from financial counselling casework to highlight the danger of removing these key consumer protections.

FCVic’s submission on the draft regulations drew on the expertise of the Bankruptcy Working Group, which involves FCVic members with particular interest in bankruptcy issues encountered in their practice.

The Bankruptcy Working Group discussed and considered the exposure draft and were able to identify positive inclusions in the draft regulations, as well as provide comments in support of the joint consumer groups submission on the exposure draft, authored by Financial Legal Rights Centre, Consumer Action Law Centre and Financial Counselling Australia.

In September 2020, Financial Counselling Victoria (FCVic) conducted a survey of Victorian financial counsellors to better understand how the sector has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resulting report, New Costs to Count, provides a snapshot of the financial counsellors’ experiences, which shows the complexity of the changes wrought by the pandemic in its first nine months.

The report also considers – in the context of the issues identified in our earlier report (Counting the Costs published January 2020) – how COVID-19 has impacted on the existing levels of work-related stress, and what opportunities there are to introduce more sustainable work practices to minimize the risk of work overload and burnout.

We’ve made recommendations in the New Costs to Count report to enable funding bodies, agency employers and financial counsellors to address the issues identified and create a safer working environment for practitioners.

In response to the 2019-20 Victorian bushfires, FCVic initiated a Bushfire Recovery Support Project to coordinate and assist with the delivery of financial counselling services in bushfire-affected communities. The project was effective in establishing vital links between financial counselling and other recovery support services, and identifying key areas for systemic advocacy.

The full review report, authored by consultants Bev Kliger and Meredith Carter, provides an evaluation of FCVic’s Bushfire Recovery Support Project and includes a series of recommendations to ensure the effective utilisation of financial counselling as part of bushfire recovery response efforts.

Bushfire recovery is a long-term process, with many financial issues emerging over time. The need for financial counselling in affected areas will continue to evolve, and as the report identifies there is a need for FCVic to continue its bushfire recovery support role.

In November 2020, the Federal Government announced it would be reducing the Coronavirus Supplement to Jobseeker and other benefits by $100 per fortnight to $150 per fortnight, while extending the reduced Supplement until 31 March 2021. The Government introduced legislation to enable these changes to apply from 1 January 2021.

The legislation was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs for scrutiny, which called for submissions. FCVic made a submission to the Committee, calling for the Supplement to be restored to its original level on a permanent basis.

FCVic was invited to attend a Committee hearing on 25 November to provide evidence. Executive Officer, Dr Sandy Ross, and Centrelink Working Group Convenor, Liz Stary, attended the hearing on behalf of FCVic. At the hearing, Sandy and Liz spoke about the positive impacts experienced as a result of the coronavirus supplement which provided a much-needed lifeline for people to pay for their basic living essentials, bring themselves out of debt, and establish a pathway towards employment. Under the previous payment rate, applying to the old Newstart, people struggled to cover daily expenses on a meagre income that forced them into poverty and, in some cases, at risk of homelessness.

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.

In its submission to the Fines Reform Advisory Board, FCVic drew upon feedback from members, raising concerns with the implementation of the new fines system, and pointing to risks that the new Work and Development Permits (WDPs) will be rendered effectively inaccessible for many of those they are designed to assist.

As noted in the submission, for the WDPs to work as a system in Victoria there needs to be additional investment in financial counselling services, recognising the significant demand issues already being experienced by the financial counselling sector, and also its strategic role in enabling client access to the WDP scheme.