Counsel

By Bridget Brady
FINANCIAL counsellors would be more beneficial to people struggling to make ends meet than a financial crisis hotline, Casey council says.
The announcement comes after the City of Casey council prepared a report on the feasibility of setting up a hotline with one fixed phone number to simplify support services in the municipality.
Springfield Ward councillor Lorraine Wreford suggested the hotline in January and said it would also be an excellent resource for gathering statistics about what types of calls were received.
“On any given day, some support services have more to give than others. This could act as a referral service and help point people in the right direction,” Cr Wreford said.
But last week’s council report highlighted the need for financial counsellors rather than a hotline.
“It is unlikely that a financial crisis hotline would be reassuring for residents experiencing financial difficulties. Face-to-face contact with a qualified financial counsellor would be the preferred option for many people,” the report noted.
But Cr Wreford said the idea of one point of call still had merit.
Cranbourne Information and Support Service (CISS) manager Leanne Petrides said the financial counsellor at CISS was “flat out”, and there was a shortage of trained counsellors. The council report noted that there was no tertiary course in Victoria dedicated purely to financial counselling.
“Financial counsellors are very important. It’s probably a two-fold process here. On the one hand we have trained counsellors that deal with the very extreme cases such as bankruptcy. And we also have volunteers and staff here that provide back up with support income maximisation.”
The Federal Government this month pledged $1.75 million to rapidly train 50 financial counsellors to be on the ground in the next three months.