The nation’s big four banks give a financial helping hand to customers in domestic and family violence situations
THE nation’s biggest banks are giving a financial helping hand to customers who are suffering from domestic and family violence.
EXCLUSIVE
THE nation’s biggest banks are giving financial assistance to thousands of domestic and family violence victims to help them flee abuse.
News Corp has learned the Commonwealth Bank, National Australia, ANZ and Westpac are independently handing out aid to customers who are in need to help them become financially independent away from an abusive partner.
Banks have quietly introduced these measures, which has not been publicised, due to concerns about high uptake of these services.
Research shows up to 90 per cent of women who seek support for domestic and family violence have also experience financial abuse, often when a partner — usually a male — uses money as a way to gain power and control their partner.
CBA’s phone hotline has been inundated with calls and some customers have been unable to get through to the service due to a heavy backlog of inquiries from the Christmas period.
Specialist trauma counsellors at Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia has been engaged by CBA to help deliver this service to customers over 16 years of age and who have an active CBA account that has been opened for at least two months.
The bank’s assistance package includes $1000 on a debit card, a $500 gift card for groceries and a prepaid mobile phone with a $30 data package, depending on the person’s circumstances.
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CBA’s general manager of financial assistance solutions Rob Kennaugh said the bank has been working hard to educate staff on how to assist customers seeking help in these difficult situations.
“We provide practical support to the most vulnerable in our community because behind each call for help is an opportunity to empower women and families to get back on their feet and regain their financial independence,’’ he said.
“We want our customers to know we’re on their side.
“Our domestic and family violence emergency assistance package is one way we are helping our customers feel valued and cared for in their greatest time of need.”
CBA has provided $400,000 to help train more than 800 financial counsellors nationally and an additional $500,000 to the Jan Pentland Foundation to fund 10 scholarships annually for the next decade to encourage people to study financial counselling.
Federal Government funding for financial counsellors is $34 million annually.
Customers seeking these packages at banks are assessed on a case-by-case basis by a team of experts including those trained domestic and family violence.
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Financial Counselling Australia’s executive director Fiona Guthrie said there has been constant demand for these types of services for a long time and economic abuse was often a major component of family violence.
“It’s encouraging that the banking industry is recognising this and are helping people to recover or re-establish after family violence,’’ she said.
“There’s two-day training rolling out across Australia for every financial counsellor to get some more in-depth knowledge about this issue and make sure we do the best job that we can when we are working with these clients, who are mainly female clients.
“We also need to make sure that we work successfully with people who are perpetrators of family violence.”
Ms Guthrie said physical and ongoing emotional and psychological violence was also a key problem in these situations.
Sexually-transmitted debt — where a partner passes on their debts to another — was also often a common issue counsellors deal with.
“The woman may end up with all the debts, she may have signed the dotted line that the bloke has got the car and she will end up with the debt,’’ Ms Guthrie said.
Westpac offers hardship assistance to customers in need including debt waivers, reduced interest payment and longer term arrangements including loan extensions.
In extreme cases they do consider assisting with emergency funds.
An ANZ spokesman said for customers experiencing domestic violence they have “a team of
specialists who understand the sensitivities and complexities.”
They also offer a range of members to assist including moratoriums on debt, interest and fees.
NAB Assist’s general manager Joseph Seychell said they have engaged specialist trained staff.
“(They can) help our customers set up an independent bank account, take extra steps to ensure privacy and security — and provide hardship assistance such as breaks from repayments or reduced payments for a period of time.
“As part of our financial hardship assistance, NAB also sometimes covers expenses such as bond and initial rent payments on the customers’ behalf, to help them take the first steps to leave a violent situation.”
*FOR anyone experiencing sexual, domestic or family violence contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or go to www.1800respect.com.au
sophie.elsworth@news.com.au