About FCA - Financial Counselling Australia

Financial counsellors are a small but highly skilled workforce, providing vital support to people experiencing financial difficulty. FCA’s role is to strengthen and enable this workforce, working alongside the state and territory financial counselling associations, who are the professional bodies for financial counsellors in their jurisdictions. We support the systems, standards and shared national infrastructure that help financial counsellors remain skilled, connected, resilient and future ready. This includes maintaining practice guidance, professional supports and national training initiatives.

We also coordinate national data, insights and research that help build a clearer picture of financial hardship across Australia, and we drive sector-wide innovations that free up more time for client work and improve the way services are delivered.

FCA provides a strong national voice for the profession, highlighting the insights of frontline financial counsellors and bringing them to bear on systemic issues of national significance. This includes work on matters affecting creditors with a national footprint. We also play an important role in influencing industry and government to improve systems, policies and hardship practices to help create fairer marketplaces.

We coordinate the National Debt Helpline and we deliver the Small Business Debt Helpline.

Our vision

An Australia free from financial hardship

Our strategic goals

Financial counselling services that better meet Australia’s needs

Ensuring financial counselling is available, accessible, inclusive and responsive, with strong national data, sustainable funding and sector-wide improvements.

A high-quality, stable, diverse and nationally connected workforce

Supporting a capable, confident and well-supported profession with strong standards, a clear workforce strategy, and strengthened First Nations workforce and capability.

Fairer markets and fairer treatment

Tackling systemic and structural drivers of financial hardship, improving industry and government hardship practices, and advancing policy and advocacy that prevent financial harm.

Financial counselling is well known and highly valued

Raising awareness of financial counselling and the National Debt Helpline, strengthening partnerships, and ensuring the sector is recognised as an essential and trusted community service.

Our funding

Most of FCA’s funding comes from the Department of Social Services (DSS). We also receive funding from Financial Counselling Industry Fund for sector-wide initiatives and from time to time, we receive support from philanthropic organisations or industry partners.

Our funding is focused on strengthening the profession, and we do not participate in competitive processes for frontline service delivery. The Small Business Debt Helpline (SBDH) is funded separately by Treasury, through a program established specifically for FCA to deliver this dedicated national service.

Surplus income from our annual conference is reinvested into sector-strengthening projects and our systemic advocacy work.