Federation Services Offered

The essence of effective family budgeting is to help clients discover their own resources for money management skills. It is not the role of advisers to act as unpaid debt collectors. Nor are advisers expected to do all the work on behalf of the client. All forms of budget advice offered by Federation services include some form of educational element, which is the basis of the Federation's philosophy.

There are five main types of advice offered by Federation services, although not all services will provide all five forms of advice. Apart from community education and Total Money Management, all services offered by Federation members, including specialist advice, are provided to the community completely free.

One-off/Crisis Advice

This type of advice aims to give immediate assistance if you are in financial crisis or if you just need some advice about your income or spending. The contact time is shorter. You may just require an adviser to take a look at your situation and provide advice on your income and spending patterns, or you may just need one creditor contacted to sort out an immediate debt crisis. There is usually no follow-up, in-depth support or education. You would not ordinarily sign the Budgeting Agreement and contact with creditors is limited. A draft budget might be prepared but a cash flow is not likely to be developed.

On-going Advice

Ongoing budget advice aims to develop your money management skills together with on-going support and advice. It is the most usual form of budget advice given by Federation services. The budget service will work with you on a regular basis depending on your needs and will provide you with in-depth support and advice. You will sign a Budgeting Agreement with the service, which will allow your adviser to contact creditors on your behalf and negotiate new repayment terms. You will be fully involved in, and in control of, decisions concerning your income and spending. You are supported by your adviser as long as you require with the ultimate goal of taking over your own budget plan as your financial management skills grew.

Total Money Management

This programme aims to alleviate the stress caused by financial problems, as the service takes over your finances for a defined period. This type of service is available to clients who are unable to manage their own finances for various reasons (eg. addiction, psychiatric problems, emotional problems, disability, confusion, and high debts). You assign your income to the budget service, who then manages your accounts according to your agreed budget. Federation members offering this service have very strict procedures set up, including banking procedures, office systems and reporting. You will be continually included in the decisions involving your finances and provided with the opportunity to learn to be responsible for handling your own financial affairs. This is entirely dependent on your own needs. Please note that this is a specialist service that is only available to certain clients and provided by some services. There is usually a small administration charge involved with this programme.

Community Education

Federation members offering this type of advice aim to develop money management and financial literacy skills in the community by providing education programmes to community groups and organisations. The Federation has developed a number of budgeting programmes that are delivered by certified budget advisers. Community education is available to community groups, individuals (through night schools), and private and public organisations. The duration and cost of the programme delivered is arranged between the budget service and the group requiring education.

Specialist Advice

Many advisers are trained in different specialist techniques. Although not all services will have this specialist knowledge, they will usually be able to refer you on to one that does. Specialist advice includes, credit contract analysis, creditor pools and summary instalment orders, creditor negotiations, debt consolidation, bankruptcy advice, help with Work and Income and IRD entitlements, access to foodbanks, access to and negotiations with Housing New Zealand, access to Telecom packages only available to Federation clients and referrals to help with other problems such as addictive behaviour, legal issues, and other specialist advice available in the community.

© 2007 New Zealand Federation of Family Budgeting Services Inc.