When Anglicare Victoria financial counselling client Debra got in touch with the team for help with her flood-damaged home, she didn’t have much faith they’d be able to make progress with her insurer. She’d been trying for 16 months.
“I don’t know who the team spoke to, but when they say they’re getting on to it. Well, I got a phone call from my insurer the next day,” Debra said.
“If it wasn’t for Anglicare Victoria, I wouldn’t be talking to you. Because I’d be basket case. That’s the truth.”
Every disaster has a different cohort that it impacts, depending on the geography and demographics of an area. As one of the state’s largest providers of social services, Anglicare Victoria can quickly connect those in need with the supports they require in the aftermath.
It also has one of the largest financial counselling networks in the state, a key strength said Leonie Cooke, Anglicare Victoria financial counsellor, when helping those worn down trying to navigate the financial and legal complexities in the days, weeks and months after a disaster event.
“They go through the trauma of disaster, then the trauma of the insurance process. They’ve got insurance companies dictating to them, a dozen assessments in and no work’s been done. They don’t understand their rights,” Leonie said.
“In one instance we had multiple clients with one insurance underwriter and we’ve reached out, expressed our concerns and the next day things started to move for them all. We’ve made a lot of contacts over the years.”
Often, after bushfire, storm or flood, affected families like Debra’s find themselves living in temporary accommodation or in makeshift homes with nowhere else to go.
After months of waiting, Anglicare Victoria was able to prompt Debra’s insurer to appoint a new project manager to begin her home repairs after months of delays, as well as temporary accommodation and non-financial loss settlements on top of her pay out.
Then, when the insurer-selected builder made off with a portion of Debra’s cash, the team wrestled it back.
“I’m forever grateful that they came along and entered our lives. The impact was just massive, things were getting done and I wasn’t getting lied to anymore,” Debra said.
Experience and empathy
Services provided by Anglicare Victoria financial counselling and Gippsland Community Legal Service (GCLS) are at no-cost to clients – “smashing” the financial barrier to access justice, said senior lawyer at GCLS, Katherine Argentino.
“No matter the level of severity of the disaster, it’s all a very similar type of trauma that they’re experiencing and the stress associated can be compounded by financial tensions and legal problems that disasters create,” she said.
Katherine knows how important it is to prepare and respond to communities in a way that enables resilience. She, like many of her colleagues, lives in the regional community she advocates for.
It means the approach by the many dedicated financial counsellors and community lawyers at Anglicare Victoria goes well beyond dollars and cents.
“The major storm in February meant everything went down, I couldn’t get my car out of the garage, I couldn’t call for help,” Katherine said.
“I’ve got two young children, I walked my kids through the streets to my parents’ house, and it was like walking through an Armageddon because every house had trees down.
“It is a really stressful, concerning experience going through a disaster. We understand what people are going through.”
In addition to case work, GCLS also provides community resources and information nights to support people across different areas of law such as insurance, power and telecommunications outages, bushfire and storm evacuation orders, and compensation entitlements as a result of disaster.
