It may seem surprising, as news headlines scream of the coronavirus recession and highest jobless rate in more than two decades, but calls to the National Debt Helpline have fallen, quite dramatically.
Calls to the financial counselling service fell almost 20 per cent between the middle of March to mid-April, even as large swathes of Australia's economy shut down.
It is giving the helpline's financial counsellors a rare opportunity to relax just a bit.
"I think it's been time for us to be able to take stock a little bit," observed Karen Cox, the CEO of the Financial Rights Legal Centre, which runs the National Debt Helpline.
Many of the daily roadblocks typically faced by those struggling financially have been removed or reduced.
"Part of the story is that a lot of people who spend a lot of their lives dealing with financial hardship are actually, possibly, in a better financial position right now," Ms Cox said.
"They've had some extra supplement money from the Government, and there's been a hold put on evictions and disconnections from essential services, which are the sorts of problems which people on very low incomes deal with all the time and often call our services about.
"If anything, those people are getting a little bit of a reprieve."
On the flipside, Karen Cox said there was a group of wealthier Australians who have never sought any financial help that are now in need.
"Yes, definitely, there's a cohort of people here who may never have been in financial difficulty and certainly aren't used to asking for help," she said.
"So there is a concern these people may simply not know where to go."
More often than not, she said, this wealthier cohort call their bank directly.
This has been made easier with the big four banks proactively offering loan payment deferrals, which recent financial reports from the major banks show have been accessed by well over half a million customers in total.
But there are still headaches for bank customers, especially when calls are not answered or borrowers are put on hold for hours at a time.
Latitude Financial accused of inadequate response
Karen Cox told PM a number of callers to the National Debt Helpline have singled out Latitude Financial — Australia's biggest non-bank lender — as being impossible to reach via the phone or online.
"We are finding that people are struggling to get through, but even if they do get through they get a response that doesn't always address the problem or the issues raised," she said.
The ABC asked Latitude Financial what is was doing to help its customers.
A spokesman said the lender was directing customers to a dedicated hardship-assistance online form.
If customers could not access this form, the spokesman said, they still had the option of contacting Latitude by phone.
However, consumer rights advocates argue that is not good enough.
"We are actually encouraging banks and other lenders to offer assistance to people that doesn't require proactive contact from the customer," director of policy and campaigns at the Consumer Action Law Centre Katherine Temple said.
"We would really like to see banks doing things like dropping credit card interest rates."
'Calm before the storm'
The pressure on banks and other lenders is only set to intensify.
That sounds like financial jargon, but it is Australia's biggest lender covering itself for customers who run out of money and whose assets must be sold at a loss, thus repaying only part of their loans and causing the bank a loss.
In a "prolonged downturn" scenario, CBA forecast Australian home prices could fall by almost a third, causing even bigger losses for customers and the bank.
Katherine Temple said she was dreading October and November, when the Federal Government stimulus payments were scheduled to come to a sudden end.
"We can expect a huge spike in calls, particularly once JobKeeper and JobSeeker are wound back," she predicted.
"So, while there has been a short-term reduction [in calls], I honestly I don't think that's going to be a long-term thing that we'll see.
"I think we're going to see a huge spike down the line in calls."
The National Debt Helpline's Karen Cox is also worried.
"Look I definitely think it's the calm before the storm," she warned.
"When all of those [bank and government assistance] measures come to an end, we're going to be in a really high-demand situation."
