Financial counselling cull 'unmanageable'

A state government decision to halve its financial counselling services has been condemned by welfare groups.

Forty-four financial counsellors will be scrapped from government department Families SA by July 1 this year, as part of the state government's 2010-2011 budget.

Ross Womersley, director of the South Australian Council of Social Service said charity organisations will be expected to fill the void, but have been given no extra funding to do so.

"This is going to have a profound impact on anyone faced with financial hardship in South Australia," he said.

"When we’re talking about financial hardship we’re not talking about financial planning and we’re not talking about simple budget planning, we’re actually talking about those circumstances where people are living on very low incomes, and suddenly find themselves confronted by a bill that they hadn’t expected."

"The find themselves in a situation where their debts spiral out of control and they need assistance."

He said that they are already turning people away, or put them on waiting lists and a cut to financial services would mean slamming the door on those in need.

"We see that the removal of 44 positions would mean that as many as 5 to 7 thousand visits won’t take place," Mr Womersley said.

In South Australia there are 110 paid financial counsellors, 96 of them are currently employed by Families SA.

Allan, a financial counselling client, said the immediate services he received from a non-government organisation may have saved his life.

"We were thinking about ending it all, the stress was getting too much, the bills were getting too much," he said.

"At that point when I went there I was really stressed out. My wife was really stressed out and we were contemplating bankruptcy or ending it all."

"Through the result of Uniting Care, they were able to see me straight away."

"Through the financial counselor we got a really good result from the bank."

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