Financial counselling

Financial counsellors can help you:

• Conduct a full assessment of your financial situation, including regular income and expenditure, plus assets and liabilities, to help you fully understand your position
• Help you create a budget and put plans into place; for example, if living out of home for the first time.
• Provide options about what to do if you’re struggling to pay debts, bill, and fines
• Help you navigate Centrelink and understand your entitlements.
• Provide advice on how to negotiate with your creditors, government agencies or other providers.
• Advocate or negotiate directly with your creditors in certain circumstances.
• Assist you if you’re being harassed by debt collectors.
• Advice on available grants and emergency support.
• Assessments for hardship requirements.
• Provide advice about what options, rights and responsibilities you may have including consumer rights.
• Provide resources and information which may help improve your financial situation.
• Refer you to other services you may need internally at the University, such as legal services, counselling, crisis food and accommodation services, and health services.
• Refer you to other services external to the University

Financial counsellors cannot help you with:

• Advice on investments or cryptocurrency.
• Advice on bank products.
• Advice on university fees, apart from referral to appropriate areas
• What about confidentiality?
• The financial counselling service is provided to you in confidence and financial counsellors do not pass on any information you have provided without your consent, expect where the disclosure of information is necessary for safety or legal requirements.

Financial counsellors are on occasion confused with financial planners or financial advisors, but the services provided are quite different. Financial planners/advisers provide advice to people who have money to invest. Financial counsellors work with people who are in debt or are not able to meet their ongoing expenses.

Depending on what financial issues you have, counsellors may want to see documentation that will help clarify the problem and lead to an effective resolution. This is a list of typical documents. Bring the ones that relate to you.

• Fines
• Utility Bills
• Bank Statements
• Credit Card Statements
• Centrelink Income Statement
• Statement of Arrears