Seniors Rights Victoria asks for urgent investment into Australian community legal centres

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Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV), the only service dedicated to preventing and responding to elder abuse within the state, has joined Community Legal Centres Australia in advocating for immediate investment in the 2024/25 Federal Budget. To assist this important cause, SRV asks its supporters to join in on a letter writing campaign raising awareness of the dire situation faced by community legal centres throughout the country.

Nationally, community legal services assisted 179,000 people across the country in 2022-23 to manage everyday legal problems with elder abuse, housing, employment, health, finances, personal safety, and to better understand and exercise their legal rights. These services are trauma-informed and integrate a range of diverse professional supports including social work, counselling, and community education.

However, community legal centres are at breaking point. Funding shortages and overwhelming demand are forcing centres to turn away over 200,000 people each year, reduce service offerings, and cancel local outreach services and clinics. Frontline workers are suffering high rates of vicarious trauma and burnout.

"Over the past year, Seniors Rights Victoria has seen a 50% increase in calls to its elder abuse helpline and a 40% rise in advice sessions. We have also seen increasing acuity in the cases that we have been supporting," said CEO Chris Potaris, detailing SRV’s circumstances.

“These trends, along with research showing increased awareness and prevalence of elder abuse, highlight a pressing, unmet need for services,” Mr Potaris continued. “The current demand is impacting our ability to meet community need and is detrimental to the wellbeing of our staff.

"Our national peak has called on the Commonwealth Government to increase funding for local community legal services by at least $125 million in the 2024 Federal Budget, and to commit to long-term funding security via the forward estimates, to prevent further service reductions and closures.”

SRV urges its supporters to use a pre-written letter template to contact their local federal representative and ask them to support the community legal sector’s calls for the May 2024-25 Federal Budget. Asks include:

1. An urgent injection of at least $50 million funding for community legal centres: to address the national workforce crisis, compensate centres for inadequate indexation, and provide targeted additional funding for services in regional, rural, remote, and very remote areas to compensate for the high costs of delivering programs in these locations.
2. An additional injection of at least $75 million to enable centres to start to address high and increasing levels of unmet legal need. Centres have documented vast amounts of unmet legal need, including through data on ‘turn aways.’
3. A clear commitment from the Commonwealth to ongoing National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP) funding for all legal assistance providers beyond June 2025, including across the forward estimates. In determining the appropriate funding quantum, the Commonwealth government should be guided by the findings of the NLAP Review (due for release in March 2024).

SRV’s request follows letters it has sent to federal representatives, bundling these asks and detailing the challenges it faces as a specialised community legal centre.

How you can help

We've created a letter template that can be quickly and easily used to write your local representative.

Download our letter template

Find your local federal representative

To take part, simply download the PDF template above and complete the fields found within. You can then save and email, or print and postal mail the letter to your local MP.

If you need any assistance with either process, please feel free to call our Seniors Rights Victoria information line on (03) 9655 2129 with any queries.

Additionally, those who are able are also welcome to donate directly to Seniors Rights Victoria to support the work we do to empower older people to recognise and prevent elder abuse.

If you are experiencing or at risk of elder abuse

If you are in Victoria and experiencing or at risk of elder abuse, help is available through Seniors Rights Victoria’s confidential helpline on 1300 368 821.

For nationwide assistance, and to access additional resources in 20 different languages, please contact the Australian Human Rights Commission on 1800 ELDERHelp (1800 353 374).

If it is an emergency, call 000.