NSW credit and debt community legal programs

Budget Counselling and the Legal System, Lismore Neighbourhood Centre Inc.
Commenced: 2009
A collaborative pilot program to assist young people, newly arrived migrants (including humanitarian entrants), indigenous families and those suffering housing stress to manage budget preparation, understand credit and debt issues, address related legal problems and access sources of assistance. Developed with assistance from a Law and Justice Foundation grant.

Developing Knowledge of Financial Hardship Provisions, The Smith Family
Commenced: 2008?
Contact: Gillian Odbert 9895 1210
This project aims to provide information on financial hardship assistance by delivering financial literacy courses. The courses are for low and middle income earners, people with a mortgage, public housing residents and private renters in western Sydney. Developed with assistance from a Law and Justice Foundation grant.

Predatory Lending Project (PLP), Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH), Consumer Credit Legal Centre NSW (CCLC) & Legal Aid NSW
Commenced: 2006
Contact: Amy Kilpatrick, PILCH Director, 029989 6500
The PLP assists people facing loss of their homes as a result of a number of unscrupulous practices by brokers and lenders. Such practices include deliberate avoidance of the law through false categorisation as investment loans, exorbitant fees and charges and equity stripping via multiple refinancing (churning.) The PLP assists by finding pro bono representation for people. The group is also engaged in lobbying for effective law reform to stop predatory lending practices. Many clients referred to the PLP are pensioners or very low income earners who took out a loan in desperate circumstances that they never had any hope of paying and the lender knew it. The legal services are provided free or on a grant of legal aid by a number of major law firms.

Prisoners Post-Release and Families Program, Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) & The Inner Sydney Tenancy Advice and Advocacy Service (ISTAAS)
Commenced: 2006
This program has initially been aimed at post-release women prisoners (a large proportion of whom are Aboriginal). It informs people of their rights and obligations in relation to a wide range of matters affecting housing and credit and debt, and to assist them in advocating for themselves. The long-term objective is to address recidivism, especially as a result of escalating debt or accommodation that is unstable or unsuitable. The program has been piloted with a group of women in a post-release supported accommodation rehabilitation program. The program is delivered as a workshop and the participants are provided with plain English workbooks appropriate to their different learning abilities.