Financial counselling

This program is in high demand, so it can take up to four weeks before your first appointment. While you’re waiting, one of our team will check in with you regularly to see how things are going for you. There is also a priority assessment which can reduce wait times if you are in immediate crisis. Wait times are often shorter to see the financial capability worker.

Financial counsellors hold specialist qualifications. They have professional expertise and knowledge of consumer and credit laws as well as different financial products and services. They provide information, support and advocacy to help people overcome financial difficulty. This means they can help you with the more complex aspects of your finance like:

• assess your financial situation
• managing debts and payment plans
• negotiating with creditors
• advocating on your behalf to businesses and other organisations
• contract negotiation.

A financial capability worker, part of our financial wellbeing team, can support you with simpler aspects of your finances like:

• provide information, money management skills and coaching to help people make better financial decisions and build financial resilience
• setting up and managing budgets
• financial tips and learning how to manage your money better
• accessing government grants, concessions and other support available.

No, our services are free to access.

We can work with you over the phone, skype and email as well as in-person. Sometimes we need to get documents signed by you or will need to see your bills and statements so working together in person can make this a little easier.

Our service is confidential. We will only speak with your partner or your family if you give us written permission to do so. We will also seek your written permission to speak with other people and organisations that may be involved in your finances like energy companies or banks. You can change your mind at any time and ask these people or organisations to withdraw your permission, and we will no longer be able to speak with them about your circumstances.

Bringing as much information to your session as possible will help us assist you. This might include:

• bills, fines or accounts that are overdue
• bank statements
• loan contracts
• letters from people or companies you owe money to, like energy or telecommunication companies
• any other information you have that’s relevant to your financial circumstances.

We’ll ask you some questions about the debt and find out if there are any limitations about negotiating with creditors when another person is involved. There are some situations where we might not need permission from the other party to contact creditors, for example when family violence is a consideration.