Rural Financial Counselling
Are you a farmer, fisher, forester or regional small business owner seeking financial counselling?
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is supporting families and communities across Australia on their disaster recovery journey. Two programs that do this are the Rural Financial Counselling Service Program and Regional Small Business Support Program Pilot.
Rural Financial Counselling Service Program
Part of this support includes the Rural Financial Counselling Service Program. The program has been in operation since 1986 and provides free and independent financial counselling to eligible farmers, fishers, foresters and small related enterprises who are experiencing, or at risk of, financial hardship.
The Rural Financial Counselling Service Program aims to:
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transition clients out of financial crisis;
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improve clients’ business profitability or facilitate a dignified exit; and
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improve clients’ financial well-being and resilience.
The outcome of the program is that clients who engage with the service become financially self-reliant and their businesses are better prepared to deal with risk.
Regional Small Business Support Program
The Regional Small Business Support Program Pilot (the Pilot) will conclude on 30 June 2023.
Since January 2020, $27.8 million has been invested into the Pilot, to support small regional businesses to build their resilience in times of drought in Modified Monash Model 2 to 7 areas. The Pilot was expanded to include areas affected by the 2019-20 bushfires, COVID-19 and flooding events in 2022 and 2023.
The Australian Government has provided $2.2 million to continue this support from 1 January to 31 March 2023, with approved service providers able to use any underspends to support small businesses until 30 June 2023.
Support is available
Visit our dedicated service provider page to learn where rural financial counsellors are located.
Click on the below programs to read more.