Overview
Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) is responsible for the Generalist Financial Counselling program in Victoria. CAV wished to ensure that the Victorian Government funding for financial counselling provides an effective, integrated and cost efficient service for Victorians experiencing financial hardship.
CAV engaged Managing Justice to review the program and develop a proposed service delivery model in response to the key findings.
Overall, there was consensus in the sector about principles of best practice, but this broke down in practice. This meant that there was a significant variability observed in the:
- nature and extent of the service delivered to clients under the banner "financial counselling"
- processes used to deliver the services and
- manner in which the services are counted.
Managing Justice has provided CAV with a proposed service model for consideration that:
- integrates the statewide phone service and the community based funded agencies
- prioritises those Victorians who are experiencing financial difficulties who are most vulnerable and financially disadvantaged and
- provides the sector with tools to assess, prioritise and refer in a consistent manner.
Download the report
A revised service delivery model proposal for generalist financial counselling services (Word, 326KB)