Bernadette Crane, Kimberly Community Legal Services
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Why did you become a financial counsellor?
I’d escaped domestic violence with my three children, aged 6, 7 and 10. I was staying at a refuge and … I was being chased by a debt collector for a car loan. They ultimately repossessed the car while I was there, leaving me without a means of escape or any safety. Even after taking the car, they continued to chase me for the money. I had no idea that financial counselling existed nor did I know there was support available to me.
Luckily for me, some years later I was able to repay that debt and have the bankruptcy annulled … looking back, if I’d had a financial counsellor to walk alongside me and support me through that time, I’m confident I may have been able to avoid that bankruptcy and the outcome may have been very different.
That’s what brought me to financial counselling.
What’s the most rewarding part of your work?
For the past five years, I’ve been living and working in the NT and WA, working in remote Aboriginal communities. One of the things that still shocks me more than anything is the level of exploitation I see among the most vulnerable people through fringe lenders charging interest rates of anything up to 49%. The individual advocacy that stems from that work and the systemic advocacy brings about some real change and life changing outcomes for these clients.
But if I’m honest it’s the connection, it’s sometimes as simple as recognising it’s somebody’s birthday and wishing them happy birthday, watching them smile and sometimes even cry – those moments build trust.
Can you share a moment for a client that reminded you why this work really matters?
I was working in a remote community called Kalumburu, one day a young fellow came in wearing a hat looking at the floor, he said he had a tax debt. I couldn’t help him eliminate that tax debt, but what I did do was help him set up a small payment plan through his Centrelink payment.
When he was leaving, he said to me “is it all fixed?” I said “yeah it’s all fixed, all you have to do is nothing because Centrelink’s gonna pay the payment for you every fortnight.” He looked at me again, he said “it’s really fixed?” I said “yeah it’s really fixed.”
In that moment you saw him light up. It started at his toes and it moved through his whole body to break out into the most amazing smile. That moment has never left me. He wasn’t getting money back, he still had to pay money, but he had an answer, he had support and he had a voice.
What kinds of issues are you most commonly helping people with right now?
Back to the fringe lenders and charging 49% interest rate – these are for people that can least afford to pay that kind of interest and they come through social media, they get bombarded with emails and text messages ‘you qualify to to get more money’.
There is another issue that I’m seeing, it’s not a new issue, it’s young people getting loaded up with huge car loans. Life-size debt with life sized consequences.
I’m really passionate about this, I’m advocating for greater lending protections for young people taking high loans. One particular client that I’ve worked with, she was loaned $82,000 the age of 20. That just astounds me … The outcome we retrieved for her was really significant, but I shouldn’t have to advocate for things like this. This should never have happened in the first place.
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