Community legal centres welcome funding for integrated financial counselling

January 24, 2025 |

The Federation commends the Victorian Government’s announcement that it will invest $15 million in the expansion and support of services offered to Victorians who are experiencing financial hardship due to mortgage or rental stress.  

Over three years, the funding will be shared between 16 organisations, including a number of community legal centres: Women’s Legal Service Victoria, Tenants Victoria, Mortgage Stress Victoria, Mallee Family Care, Consumer Action Law Centre and Banyule Community Health (through which West Heidelberg Community Legal is auspiced). 

In November 2024, the Federation advocated for funding for community legal centres to increase their provision of financial counselling services as part of integrated service delivery models in our submission to Consumer Affairs Victoria Financial Counselling Review. This will improve accessibility, avoid re-traumatisation of clients experiencing persistent disadvantage, assist hard to reach cohorts with complex needs, identify and resolve complex co-occurring financial and legal problems, and provide wraparound and holistic supports. Integrating financial counselling within community legal centres ensures people experiencing hardship can access holistic and trauma-informed support. This is particularly important given the significant co-occurrence of legal and financial issues for people accessing community legal centre support. 

Both legal and financial issues cluster around hardships such as family breakdown, family violence, unemployment, insecure housing and discrimination. A Health Justice Australia survey revealed that 84 per cent of lawyers in Health Justice Partnerships provided referrals to financial counsellors (internal referrals, external referrals, or both), and a further 10 per cent said that they received referrals from financial counsellors. 

The announcement to increase funding to integrated financial services at community legal centres is welcomed by the Victorian community legal sector, which recognises the critical role of accessible financial counselling as part of a holistic response to intersecting and complex issues.  

We thank Minister for Consumer Affairs Nick Staikos for listening to the Victorian community legal sector, and for responding to the needs of the community in this way. The funding will enable community legal centres to increase their service offerings and improve the way they support clients to access justice.   

You can read the Federation’s submission to the Consumer Affairs Victoria Financial Counselling Review here, and more about the Consumer Affairs Victoria grants here. 

 

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