Founding Documents

The Federation's members are governed by the Rules of the New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services Incorporated. This is a legal document registered with the societies registrar. Alterations to the Rules can only be made at a meeting of the membership and only when a majority vote is taken. The Rules currently contain 19 clauses governing the organisation and have 12 registered amendments, the most recent in February 2006. The most recent copy of the Rules can be found here:

Approved Version of Rules 2005.pdf

The Federation's Mission Statement is:

The New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services Inc. is dedicated to the development and education of budgeting skills through community programmes and free advice from supportive, confidential and culturally aware services.

The Purpose of the Federation is outlined in the Rules. In short, the Purpose of the Federation is to fulfil its mission by:

(a) providing budgeting services for families and individuals
(b) providing support systems and structures
(c) providing resources to services
(d) providing standardised training for budget advisers
(e) having Te Tiriti o Waitangi basic to its policies and practices
(f) providing a policy development process
(g) establishing, maintaining and monitoring standards
(h) recognising and valuing the work of volunteers
(i) identifying gaps in service provision
(j) advocacy to relevant organisations for the betterment of services and clients
(k) publicising and promoting budgeting
(l) providing education for the wider community, nationally.

All Federation services must abide by the agreed Code of Ethics. The Code is taught to all advisers during initial training and revisited regularly during in-service training and at Federation events. All services must agree to the Code before they are considered for affiliation. The Federation takes the Code very seriously.

Code of Ethics.pdf

All Federation services agree to the Philosophy of the Federation. In fulfilling the constitutional objectives Te Tiriti o Waitangi is fundamental to the policies and practices of the Federation; that the Federation recognises and supports the Charter of the United Nations, the Conventions of the International Labour Organisation , and the Bill of Rights of Aotearoa-New Zealand; and that in delivering the ethical considerations referred to above the membership hold to the philosophy that:

► Community education and advice is fundamental to the promotion of good family budgeting skills
► Budgeting is an essential need that benefits many people in each community
► For the sake of the client family quality will not be compromised
► Budgeting assistance aims to give or restore the client’s independence in money management
► All forms of budgeting, including provision of total money management, must include an element for educating the client
► Budgeting services need to have adequate resources of people and systems
► Budgeting services need input and support of their local communities
► Budgeting needs a strong national organisation in which the membership has confidence with clear national roles in coordination of effort and support, including assisting with funding of budgeting services
► The national body should advocate for a fair deal for budgeting clients and the communities and make policy-makers aware of client and budgeting service needs and concerns

© 2007 New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services Inc.