Major Church Providers - Additional Emergency Relief Funding Welcome

The major church providers of social services in Australia have welcomed the additional funding for Emergency Relief announced by Jenny Macklin today.

The new funding is a timely and necessary response to the concerns we have expressed to the Government about rising demand for services.

The Emergency Relief Program is used at the discretion of individual social services agencies to help people who are having trouble paying for food and utilities like gas and electricity.

Our agencies report they are receiving increasing requests from people who are unable to meet their rent or mortgage repayments.

We must now move quickly in order to plan for and respond to future demand.

Funding for the Emergency Relief Program for 2008-09 has been increased by $10.9 million and will increase by $34.4 million and $35.3 million for 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively.

This additional funding is one opportunity for organisations to bolster existing services and plan for the needs of new entrants into the system.

The Deputy Prime Minister's Community Response Taskforce is one way the demand for services and the success of programs can be monitored closely in the weeks and months ahead.

We acknowledge the consultation processes with Government in the lead up to this decision and we welcome the opportunity to work with the Government as they seek to find ways to alleviate the impact of the economic downturn on lower income Australians.

The major church provider networks provide the majority of social services in Australia. Spokespeople include:

• Kasy Chambers, Executive Director, Anglicare Australia
• Frank Quinlan, Executive Director, Catholic Social Services Australia
• Major Brad Halse, Salvation Army
• Lin Hatfield Dodds, National Director, Uniting Care Australia

6 February 2009

Contacts:

• Judith Tokley, Catholic Social Services Australia 0408 824 306
• Kasy Chambers, Anglicare Australia 0401 494 380
• Major Brad Halse, Salvation Army, 0417 537 950
• Michael Brown, UnitingCare Australia 0418 916 936