Consumer

New Year. No Debt: Budgeting, Debt and Credit Reports

The Financial Counsellor role sits within the Consumer Law Team, and the Financial Counsellor is available to receive referrals from the Civil Law division
A Financial Counsellor can:
Assess a client’s financial situation and advise on possible solutions.
Make financial hardship applications, including requesting debt waivers.
Provide advice for clients who are struggling to pay bills, meet basic financial needs and prioritise creditors.
Help clients to negotiate with creditors, such as banks, water and energy suppliers, telco’s, government agencies, landlords, debt collectors and others.
Refer clients to other services they may need such as legal, accommodation, or crisis services.
Provide training to solicitors and community on financial hardship issues and how to complete a statement of financial position.
Our Financial Counsellors cannot give grants or arrange relief.
All Financial Counsellors at Legal Aid work within our Allied Professional Framework that states that “all Allied Professional Services are tied to the legal matter in which LA NSW is engaged”. Lawyers working with allied professionals result in an improved experience and better outcomes for our clients. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Financial Counsellor be able to work with clients who do not have an ongoing legal matter.
All referrals to the Financial Counsellor will be triaged. We encourage maintenance of relationships with local Financial Counselling services. To find your local financial counsellor, please see - Financial counselling - Moneysmart.gov.au
Budgeting tools and websites
Budget planner - Moneysmart.gov.au
budget-planner_moneysmart.xls (live.com)
Some Legal Aid resources
Credit Law Toolkit - https://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/for-lawyers/resources-and-tools/civil-law/credit-law-toolkit **Please note: This resource is aimed at Financial Counsellors and other professionals**
Better way than Payday Loans - http://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/publications/factsheets-and-resources/theres-a-better-way-than-payday-loans
Being Squeezed for a Debt - http://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/publications/factsheets-and-resources/are-you-being-squeezed-for-a-debt
Acknowledgments
The music in our Law for Community Workers on the go podcasts is Blue Highway by Podington Bear licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 Licence
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
Legal Aid NSW has met all our legal copyright and intellectual property obligations in the preparation of these podcasts.
Link to Transcript: https://otter.ai/u/cpkW2NUBXhp_WRUYSWnwRq9QIvY?utm_source=copy_url

Jingle Bills: Addressing Christmas Debt

 
Overspending at Christmas can be the worst start to new year for a lot of people. In this episode we speak with two of Legal Aid’s Financial Counselors about some of the spending traps people can fall into at Christmas and give some information about tools and services available for people to gain control over their spending.
Jeanine is from the Civil Law Service for Aboriginal Communities or ‘CLSAC’. We are a service of Legal Aid NSW. CLSAC goes to communities in NSW and visits Aboriginal women in custody. The majority of CLSAC staff are Aboriginal people.
Baryulgil
Maclean
Brewarrina
Mt Druitt
Lake Cargelligo
Batemans Bay
Malabugilmah
Condobolin
Tabulam
 
Bodalla
Mogo
Coraki
Toomelah
 
Boggabilla
Moree
Dareton
Wallaga Lake
 
Bourke
Moruya
East Dubbo
Yamba
 
CLSAC goes to these communities:
 
Sharon is a member of the Consumer team in our Civil Law division.
Both CLSAC and the Consumer team are a part of the Civil Law division of Legal Aid NSW.
The civil law practice helps resolve legal issues that impact on people's everyday lives such as debts, unpaid fines, discrimination, tenancy issues, Centrelink disputes and more. Our focus is on helping people to resolve legal issues as early as possible.
Budgeting tools: https://moneysmart.gov.au/
Law Access: 1300 888 529 debt and credit (nsw.gov.au)
CLSAC (Jeanine): 1800 793 017 and 02 9219 5057
Consumer Team (Sharon): consumer@legalaid.nsw.gov.au
Link to Transcript: https://otter.ai/u/0STHGy05vH5NluI_poQok_x3VfE
Financial Rights Legal Centre: Financial Rights Legal Centre - Advice and advocacy for consumers in financial stress.
Acknowledgments
The music in our Law for Community Workers on the go podcasts is Blue Highway by Podington Bear licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ Legal Aid NSW has met all our legal copyright and intellectual property obligations in the preparation of these podcasts

Our rights when we buy goods and services – what’s new?

Call to action!
 
Tell us what you really think of 'Law for Community Workers on the go' - help this resource grow and improve.
 
Consumer law deals with your rights when you buy goods and services. In this episode we learn about:
How common consumer law issues are
What your clients can do if they’ve had a bad experience with Vocation and Education Training (VET) Student loans.
Fair Trading’s new powers – sometimes Fair Trading can order a business to repair a good, replace a good or pay you money
Where did the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) go? They’ve all been replaced by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
We also touch on a few other things such as payday loans, basic consumer law rights and how to refer your clients for free legal advice that hopefully you and your clients will find useful!
 
You can call LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529 for free legal information and referrals or visit their website
 
You can see where your closest Legal Aid NSW office
 
You can visit the Australian Financial Complaints Authority’s website or call them on 1800 931 678.
 
You can visit Fair Trading NSW’s website or call them on 13 32 20.