Original media release from the Financial Counselling Foundation (FCF) on 11/05/2023.
The Financial Counselling Foundation (FCF) has welcomed a generous, charitable donation of $7.75
million that will fund several key financial counselling services across Australia.
The donation, the largest single contribution of its kind, comes from a group of companies in the
banking, finance, insurance, energy, telecommunications and online gambling sectors.
Financial Counselling Foundation chairperson George Brouwer said the donation was a significant
boost that would help change lives and livelihoods at a time when many Australians were doing it
tough.
“The $7.75 million will enable the foundation to not only provide support to existing grants that are
about to expire, but also implement new projects,” Mr Brouwer said. “This comes at a time of great
financial hardship and, consequently, a time of huge pressure on the financial counselling sector.
“Our funding priorities include family violence victims, tenants at risk of homelessness, First Nations
communities and people in prison.”
The Foundation has prioritised initial funding to extend for two years the national Family Violence
Financial Counselling program whose three-year funding finishes in June 2023.
Carmel Franklin, the CEO of the Family Violence Financial Counselling Agency, CARE in the ACT, said
the extra funding would help meet the huge demand the service had experienced in recent years.
“Over the three years the program has been running, the national program has seen more than 4000
women – often with highly complex financial and other needs, and at least half of whom experience
economic abuse,” Ms Franklin said.
“So, we’re absolutely delighted that the Foundation is able to extend this funding and acknowledge
the additional costs associated with delivering the service. Our service, like so many others, has
experienced a surge in domestic and family violence cases in recent years, so the extension of the
funding is not only very welcome but very necessary.”
Other services that are currently funded by the Foundation and may benefit through extension to
existing contracts are:
- Free financial counselling for people who do not have a lawyer and are facing bankruptcy
proceedings in the Federal Court as well as the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia in
Sydney - A financial counsellor in the three tenancy legal services in Victoria, NSW and Queensland to
support private tenants struggling financially - Two financial counsellors with Mob Strong Debt Help advice line, a 1800 number available
nationally for First Nations people.
The Foundation is also assessing the potential to fund financial counsellors to work in the prison
environment.