Increases in demand for support services

Increases in demand for support services as financial crisis hits home
23 Oct 2008 - Source: Ramon A Williams

Australia’s worsening financial and housing crisis is impacting on Wesley Mission’s ability to meet the needs of a growing number of people left homeless, bankrupt and vulnerable according to Wesley Mission’s 2007-08 Annual Review which was released today.

As the crisis deepened during the past year, Wesley Creditline Financial Counselling Service provided counsel and support to 4826 people but turned away 2424. The number of women seeking crisis accommodation grew from 148 to 227 – a jump of 53 per cent on the previous year.
For the rest of this story go to: http://www.acctv.com.au/articledetail.asp?id=6330


As a long time volunteer in various orgs I can tell you there is desperation out there. Most of these people are in this trouble through no real fault of their own, on the other hand, there are many who have brought this on themselves. Through greed...you know the type...higher mortgage than they could really afford, having to have all brand new and expensive furniture, and the flashy car/s to go with it all. And how do we pay for this...by that little piece of plastic that the banks just love to hand out to people who they know very well will get in over their heads. The other people going to NCO's for a handout, well these are the gamblers, the alcoholics, the drug addicts, who spend their welfare payments on their vices, and not only welfare recipients but workers as well. The biggest losers are of course the children of all of the above. Then many of these people declare bankruptcy, and who pays for this in the long run?? I think we all do in one way or another. We also pay in the long run for all the thieves who just help themselves in supermarkets, other shops or to other peoples' property, thus insurance will be increased in high risk areas, and we all pay extra for our groceries etc because of the insurance hike to cover the cost of thefts.


For people who lose their houses due to defaulting on their mortgage payments, who is going to bail them out...our government? Creating another Fanny & Freddie situation? After all, didn't they encourage low income earners to go in for a mortgage by offering them the first home owners scheme of X amount of dollars.

"It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It’s a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay." from WOJ 21-10-08 Fannie Rort and Freddy Scam.


Just like they had to start paying people to have babies. Hence another baby-boom. Only this time there are babies being born to people who just simply have NO rights to be parents, hence so many kids needing foster care and babies being born only to go straight into a detox/methadone programme. And all because of why????? Not enough "caucasian" babies were being born to keep our population going, and then immigrant intakes to boost the economy, and presumably because there would not be enough tax payers to support the original babyboomers and those who followed.

Everywhere I go I see women...and young.. pushing a stroller with a baby, while toddler is beside the pregnant mum. There are so many barely legally old enough mums to be and in some cases these young mums are expecting their 2nd, and they are not even 18 years old yet., and at times, girls not old enough to be having sex....pregnant. Now I am not advocating abortion, as I am against that idea, but that is another issue...but for all these women and young adults and teenagers to be having babies and collecting the 'Baby Bonus' well I just have to wonder, would they be so eager to be having all these babies if there were no baby bonus? Some will say yes and others will not agree. Some will say that females do not have babies for the money, well let me tell you some do. I personally know of people that as soon as the baby bonus has been put into the bank, the baby is then being raised by grandma or handed over to welfare and foster homes. Some of the very unlucky babies are forced to endure life with a totally strung out on....insert whatever drug....and are lucky to get fed once in a while. There are babies and toddlers of single parents that the welfare need to agree on which drug addict parent is better than the other one to leave the child with. Oh and if grandma is raising the child, there is not much help out there for her, not from welfare at least. Yet if more foster carers were available then they at least get re-imbursed for expenses or in some agencies, depending on the age and level of needs of the child, then there is a sliding scale of 'payment'. I understand why most agencies do not pay a lot for carers, as there is already some in the business who only take these poor little kids in because of the money...yes it happens...if the weekly amount were to be raised then that would leave the way open for even more unscrupulous people to get into the foster care game.

There are some horror stories out there that do not make for good reading, but there they certainly are! If I did not know about this from experience then I would have a hard time believing it, but alas no. I have seen kids after months of a "caring" foster carers doing all the hard work on these dysfunctioning little kids, be returned to the parent/s because of a court order stating that the drug addiction is under control...not gone mind you, but under control.... or the domestic violence has settled because the parent/s have been to court/rehab and promised they would be good little parents if only they can have their welfare payments....ooopppsss I mean their kids returned. Only for these kids to once again end up back in the system....or worse DEAD. Now this I have written proof of and have had for 13 odd years. I have a stack of court documents of child welfare cases where the child was returned to the parents only to be returned to the Childrens' Hospital time and time again, or sadly to the morgue. I obtained these case files when there was a State Inquiry into DHS, that was instigated by Jeff Kennet back in 1996. This was a result of then a young boy (barely 16 yo) died from heroin.... and this was not long after the first death of a young girl from ecstacy. Mind you the details of these stories are long and detailed, and I might just one day write about it, as I am personally involved in one of the cases. But not today...the wounds are still raw. Suffice to say that the young boy who died of heroin was not into drugs until he was put into the welfare system and short-term units, due to family problems. He never saw any heroin use from his parents or close family members, he learnt those tricks from being placed in with other teen drug users.

But the long and the short of all this is I am really getting tired of people who run up credit knowing full well they have no real means of ever getting out of debt, and so using up all welfare resources, leaving none for those truly deserving of other peoples generous donations. Call me hard, but yes I have had to harden up over the years. I believe that a bit of TOUGH LOVE can go a long way with so many people and especially with today's youth, and even some adults.