Imagine that you didn’t have a fridge, you didn’t have anywhere to store fresh ingredients for your family’s meals. Imagine not having a washing machine or being without basic furniture – a bed to sleep in, a chair to sit in or a table to sit at.
It sounds grim. It probably feels frightening, disempowering and alienating but there is a group of more than two million Australians that are so hard-pressed financially they do go without these basic household items.
This can have a huge social impact on the whole family affecting self esteem and the ability to participate in the community. Basic chores take longer, and families are less likely to spend time together because they don’t have comfortable spaces to actually be together.
Australia’s financially excluded are generally not bad money managers, they are just cash poor, leaving them vulnerable to crisis. What some of us might consider a small obstacle like an unexpected doctor’s bill, or minor car repair, can tip the scales creating a downward financial spiral from which it can be hard to recover.
And when faced with desperate situations it is the people that can least afford it that often resort to measures like predatory lenders that charge crippling fees and only worsen the situation. Often borrowers have paid four times the original price by the time the loan is repaid thereby exacerbating financial hardship and poverty.
This leads to some interesting questions and some pretty uplifting answers
What can be done to help Australia’s financially excluded?
It’s not about hand-outs. Individuals and families on low incomes need someone to invest trust in them, and their future.