Families experiencing complex financial hardship may benefit from short term income management where it is linked to financial counselling and other services to improve their lives in the long term Anglicare Victoria said today.

"Families do not often reach crisis over night and nor can we hope to turn their lives around with a quick fix," said Anglicare Victoria CEO Dr Ray Cleary.

"Income management may be an effective way to help families meet their immediate needs but it must be linked to capacity building services for long term change and be time-limited to hand responsibility back to families once they have developed their skills."

Dr Cleary called on the government to review a range of family support services and social policies and commit to ensuring low income families have access to a fair standard of living.

"Mutual responsibility means the government must do their part to make sure families have enough money to live at a reasonable standard.

"That means access to affordable and appropriate housing, affordable utilities and medical treatment when needed.

"Far too many families currently find themselves short on money and forced to decide between things like new school book, heating the home or buying prescription medication. They should not be forced to choose between things that are all essential."

The Anglicare Victoria Hardship Survey 2010 shows that up to half of the families and individuals accessing emergency relief cannot afford dental treatment and almost one in three cannot afford to eat a good meal once a day.

"Anglicare Victoria provided emergency relief and crisis aid to 50,000 people in the past 12 months," said Dr Cleary.

"Our hardship survey show us very clearly that this group of people are behind on payments for housing and utilities, forced to borrow money from family and friends and unable to buy essentials such as medicine prescribed for them by a doctor."

Dr Cleary acknowledged that short term income management may help some of these people pay for their essentials but called for a more comprehensive system of support to get their lives back on track for the long term.

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