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There’s been a significant increase in the number of people reaching out to the National Debt Helpline (NDH) over the past year. During 2024 more than 169,000 people called in or used the online chat tool to seek help from financial counsellors – a 12% increase on 2023. Total visits to the NDH website also…
Read More Number of People Reaching Out to the NDH Increases
Knowledge is Power
ICAN’s Yarnin’ Energy team launched a ‘Get emPOWERed!’ competition on Monday the 11th of November. The competition has been designed to engage people to participate in the coaching component of our Yarnin’ Energy program. “The first fifty people to book and attend an appointment with one of our Yarnin’ Energy Mentors will receive a FREE Energy…
Read More ICAN Launches ‘Get emPOWERed!’ Competition through Yarnin’ Energy Program
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Australians are being urged to directly seek financial hardship assistance from their bank or lender, as new nationwide research released by ASIC’s Moneysmart sheds light on the state of financial hardship in Australia. The research found that 47% of Australian adults with debt, the equivalent of 5.8 million people, have struggled to make repayments in…
Read More Research Finds Millions Experience Hardship, Yet Many Don’t Ask for Help
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The Honourable Amanda Rishworth beamed into the recent annual Financial Counselling Australia conference in Perth a day after the budget announcement with some welcome news for the financial counselling sector. The Government will invest around $23 million over four years and ongoing, to provide more pre-crisis and early intervention supports, taking the total recent additional…
Read More Increased Funding for Financial Crisis and Early Intervention Support
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The United States of America’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published a new report, Price Complexity in Laboratory Markets, which indicates that complex pricings, or costs separated into various sub-prices, are typically more expensive and harder to compare – leading to consumers paying more. Based on the CFPB’s previous research, this increased complexity and…
Read More US Consumer Protection Body Publishes Research Finding Higher Price Complexity Leads to Consumers Paying More
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ASIC urges you to hang up on cold callers and scroll past social media click bait offering to help you compare and switch super funds. How super cold calling works Cold callers often use high pressure sales tactics to convince you to buy a product or sign up to a service. Their tactics include making…
Read More ASIC to Consumers: Hang up on super cold callers
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The National Anti-Scam Centre’s collaborative efforts across government, law enforcement, consumer organisations and industry have boosted the community’s fight against financial crime, as the latest Targeting Scams report reveals a 13.1 per cent decline in reported losses to $2.74 billion in 2023. The report compiles data reported to Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE…
Read More Scam Losses Fall But A Long Road Ahead
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This week Consumers International launched a global campaign for transparent digital finance. Poor transparency has long been a problem in financial services, but now more than ever there are billions of consumers (1) using banks and other financial services and (2) using or connecting to these financial services digitally. Over mounting concern on both digital…
Read More Global Campaign for Transparent Digital Finance Launches
From Surviving to Thriving: Embedding a well-being framework into financial counselling practice
Skills and Knowledge
Connections
- Survivng
- Stabilising
- Building
- Thriving
Identity
Health
Basic Needs
Money
In 2020, the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) set out to widen the scope of its financial counselling services by looking at how it could deliver a holistic financial counselling framework that could better meet the financial and well-being needs of its service users. Over the past three years, ICAN has been developing a practice framework for its financial counselling services that embeds elements of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Today ICAN has released the report: From surviving to thriving: Embedding a well-being framework into financial counselling practice that shares the learnings from this significant organisational undertaking.
Read More ‘From Surviving to Thriving’ ICAN’s Report on Holistic Financial Counselling
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New research released by ASIC’s Moneysmart has shed light on the financial concerns of Australian Gen Z women, revealing that they are more likely than Gen Z men to feel stressed and overwhelmed by finances and money.
“These findings demonstrate the importance of empowering young women to move past girl math and take control of their finances. Countless studies have shown financially literate people are better at budgeting and saving, managing mortgages and debt, planning for retirement, and growing their wealth. These behaviours aren’t inherent – they can be learnt at any age. That’s why we need to change the equation on girl math in 2024,”
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“COTA Australia has been calling for action to support older people better plan for retirement. Financial literacy and retirement income products are key elements to make sure people are confident to spend more than the legislated minimum draw down and support them to have a dignified retirement.”
Read More COTA: Federal Government Needs to Increase Services for All Ages
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Original article by Chris Siemers, posted on the Australian Financial Complaints Authority website on 05/06/2023. Hundreds of thousands of fixed-rate loans will roll onto much higher rates in coming months, catching up on a year of rate rises from which they have so far been quarantined. Some borrowers face the prospect of being tipped into…
Read More Mortgage Stress – Getting on the Front Roof
