Last week’s South Australian budget is good news for people in that State struggling with credit and debt issues. The budget includes $1 million per annum for additional financial counsellors and $400,000 per annum for a specialist consumer credit legal service for the next four years. Financial counsellors – who…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…