News and Events
22/05/2013
22 May 2013 - Recognising and responding to economic abuse is one of the focus sessions at the annual Financial Counselling Australia conference, taking place this week in Sydney. The presenters, Sue Fraser from Kildonan Uniting Care and Tanya Corrie from Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service, will draw on a significant body of recent research (‘Spotlight on economic abuse’) to be released jointly by Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service and Kildonan Uniting Care on 29 Ma
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22/05/2013
22nd May 2013 - State and Territory financial counselling associations from around Australia have today launched the first national “Rank the Banks” survey.
The survey asked financial counsellors – who provide information, support and advocacy to people experiencing financial difficulty – to rate how well each of the ‘big four’ banks, and some of the smaller banks, were assisting customers in financial hardship.
The headline rankin
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2/03/2013
1st March 2013 - Financial counsellors around Australia are today celebrating a major leap forward for the profession: legal protection of the terms “financial counsellor” and “financial counselling”.
Financial counsellors work in community organisations and assist people in financial difficulty to get back on track. Funded by government, the services provided by a financial counsellor are free, confidential and independent of industry.
This historic ref
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31/01/2013
31st January 2013 - Financial counsellors have welcomed today’s release of a revised Code of Banking Practice.
Banks obviously already have to comply with a number of laws – credit laws, privacy laws, fair trading laws – to name a few. The strength of a Code of Practice is that it goes beyond black letter laws such as these. An effective code is akin to a set of promises that an industry makes to its customers. Importantly, an effective code is also enforce
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26/11/2012
26th November 2012 - Financial difficulty disputes have increased by 42% according to the recent annual report from the Financial Ombudsman Service.
This comes on top of an increase of 130% in the previous financial year.
“The continuing increase in financial difficulty disputes is something that is a cause of concern not just for financial counsellors – who each year help thousands of Australians struggling to pay their bills – but also for financial institut
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22/11/2012
22nd November, 2012 - Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) has welcomed the announcement by the Federal Minister for Human Services, Senator Kim Carr, of an independent review into Centrepay.
“Centrepay was set up to help Centrelink recipients budget for essential costs, such as rent and utilities,” said Fiona Guthrie, Executive Director of FCA. “At the request of a Centrelink recipient, a regular amount is deducted from their payment to pay bills, wi
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19/11/2012
19th November 2012 - Dear Stakeholders
I am delighted to release the Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) Annual Report 2012, containing information about our activities, highlights during the year and our challenges in the future.
Distributing our Annual Report is timely, given the release in late October of the PwC-CSI Community Index – a survey of confidence and operating conditions in the not-for-profit sector. The index confirms what many of us instinctively k
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12/11/2012
12th November 2012 - Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) welcomes the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s decision to authorise an initiative from the banking industry that will lead to fee-free ATMs in a number of remote Indigenous communities.
“This is a huge step forward in reducing the financial disadvantage suffered by people living in remote communities,” said Fiona Guthrie, Executive Director of FCA.
In December 2010, FCA released a
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23/10/2012
24th October 2012 - Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) congratulates the Federal government on their $10 million investment towards advancing the interests of consumers in the superannuation system.
By providing seed capital for the establishment of a not-for-profit Superannuation Consumer Centre, the government is developing the framework to provide superannuation-related education and advocacy for all working Australians. Executive Director of FCA, Fiona Guthrie, welcomes th
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22/10/2012
22nd October 2012 - An insightful report into the impact of financial counselling on both debt resolution and the overall wellbeing of consumers has found that the significant majority of those surveyed benefitted both financially and personally from seeking the assistance of a financial counsellor – and that many wished they had done so earlier.
The report, I wish I’d known sooner, surveyed 225 participants who had accessed the financial counselling services of The Salvati
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9/10/2012
9th October 2012 - A coalition of consumer groups is urging the Federal Government to reconsider aspects of its planned credit reporting reform which could see Australians have their credit history tarnished for late payment of amounts as little as $100. In a recent discussion paper on credit reporting regulations, the Government proposed not to increase the minimum debt that can be listed on a credit report beyond $100.[i
The consumer groups believe the minimum amount for which consume
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9/10/2012
10th October 2012 - Under legislation passed by the Senate this week, around 100,000 single parent households face the prospect of increased financial stress next year.
Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) is disappointed that changes to the Single Parent Payment, mooted earlier this year by the Federal government, have now passed the Senate. FCA fears that these changes will cause added financial stress for many already struggling households.
“In the May 2012 budget, t
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30/09/2012
1st October 2012 - Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) congratulates the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on their historic and significant win in the Federal Court last week, in a case cementing the legal enforceability of ‘Do Not Knock’ stickers.
The case, brought against an energy retailer and a marketing company acting on its behalf, is the first under the Unsolicited Consumer Agreement provisions of the Australian Consumer Law. The court awarded p
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2/09/2012
2nd September - “Plenty of people on low incomes are terrific at budgeting; they have to be!”
Today marks the beginning of MoneySmart Week - a national initiative bringing together more than 100 organisations from the business, government and community sectors, with the aim of advancing the financial literacy of all Australians. Financial Counselling Australia is delighted to support MoneySmart Week and encourages Australians to take advantage of the free informati
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27/08/2012
28th August 2012 - Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) encourages the public to throw their support behind a private member’s bill that aims to establish a “Do Not Knock” register.
Introduced to Parliament by Federal MP Steve Georganas, and currently the subject of a House of Representatives' Social Policy and Legal Affairs committee inquiry, the objective of the bill is to empower consumers to opt out of receiving door-to-door sales visits. Similar to the D
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26/08/2012
27th August, 2012 - Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) welcomes the passage of Section 160C of the Consumer Credit and Corporations Legislation Amendment (Enhancements) Bill 2011, by the Federal Parliament earlier this month. This section restricts the use of the terms “financial counsellor” and “financial counselling” to organisations that provide financial counselling services as prescribed under the National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010. Whi
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6/08/2012
6th August 2012 - Financial Counselling Australia and the National Welfare Rights Network have both welcomed the federal government’s announcement of a boost in staff numbers for the Centrelink call centre. With some welfare recipients currently remaining on hold for up to 90 minutes, both organisations describe the boost as sorely needed.
“The volume of calls made to Centrelink has increased by more than twenty percent over the past six years, to a current level of around o
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25/05/2012
25th May 2012: Financial counsellors and money management workers have welcomed today’s announcement from the banking industry and private ATM providers that should ultimately see ATM fees abolished in a number of remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The announcement follows a report by FCA* in December 2010, that highlighted the high cost of ATM fees for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities. FCA’s report found that some pe
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15/05/2012
15th May 2012: Minister for Financial Services, the Hon. Bill Shorten MP, has helped Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) and CentaCare Wilcannia-Forbes launch a new front in the Do Not Knock campaign aimed at reducing harmful door-to-door sales practices in Indigenous communities.
Minster Shorten launched the project, which includes a new ATSI Do Not Knock sticker, at Financial Counselling Australia’s National Conference which was attended by over 300 financial counsellors from around
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24/04/2012
24th April 2012: Financial counsellors today welcomed news that the cost of ringing 1800 and 13 phone numbers from mobiles will finally be the same as those from a landline.
The campaign for "Fair Calls for All" was led by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), ACOSS and FCA. The original impetus for the campaign came from financial counsellors. Many of their clients rely solely on mobile phones. The cost of calling say the bank or Centrelink can be huge for
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1/03/2012
1st March 2012: The financial counselling sector has warmly welcomed the formation of a new incorporated financial counselling association: Financial Counsellors ACT.
The formation of Financial Counsellors ACT represents a huge leap forward for the profession. There are now incorporated financial counselling bodies in every State and Territory in Australia – a huge milestone and well worth celebrating.
The State and Territory financial counselling associations set m
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