Financial Counsellors

SACOSS (South Australian Council of Social Services) today launched a media campaign to protest the state government cuts to services in the area of Financial Counselling. The Salvation Army is a member of SACOSS and has participated in the protest. It will have direct impact on our services at Marion.

Effectively, 44 Financial Counselling positions have been cut from Families SA centres, with the workload being transferred onto exisiting non-government providers. Because the government funds this service through the same program as Emergency Relief, the figures are often blurred, and you will notice in tonight's news that the minister continually says that they are funding this service already, but then quotes ER figures.

Realistically, anyone that is not defined as a Families SA client, e.g. a ward of the state, child at risk etc, they will be referred for assistance to the local NGO, e.g. The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army will then need to provide the additional services provided by 44 Families SA staff on our cut of the money provided that will be split between all NGO's in the sector. One estimate, which you will hear on the radio, is that the funds provided may support 10 extra workers across the state in the place of 44.

The link here takes you to the ABC interview with the minister this morning. You will note that the minister continually refers to Emergency Relief style financial services (e.g. food voucher style services) and not financial counselling figures, which the interviewer keeps returning to. There is a spokesman early on in the interview and then it crosses to the minister.

http://soundcloud.com/chris-78-1/abc-financial-counselling/s-QTm3d