Annual Review 2022–23
Contents
- About this Annual Review
- Year at a glance
- Acknowledgement of country
- Board Chair message
- Chief Executive Officer and Chief Ombudsman message
- Organisational overview
- AFCA Independent Review
- Complaints
- Who complained to AFCA?
- Overview of complaints
- Open cases
- Closed cases
- Banking and finance complaints
- Buy now pay later
- Scam complaints
- Financial difficulty complaints
- Small business complaints
- General insurance complaints
- Significant events
- Life insurance complaints
- Superannuation complaints
- Investments and advice complaints
- Cryptocurrency
- Complaints lodged by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Complaints lodged by consumer advocates and financial counsellors
- Complaints lodged by paid representatives
- Complaints outside AFCA’s Rules
- AFCA’s Systemic Issues function
- AFCA’s Code compliance and monitoring functiong
- Engagement, awareness and accessibility
- Corporate information
- AFCA General Purpose Financial Report
- Glossary
At AFCA, consumer advocates including financial counsellors, community lawyers and support staff play a crucial role. They provide free representation to individuals during their complaints and also direct them to AFCA for assistance.
Our community outreach program emphasises raising awareness, education and fostering trust in our EDR process. These trusted partners are crucial in guiding individuals through our process, especially those experiencing difficult circumstances or vulnerability, who might not know about our services.
In 2022–23, consumer advocates referred close to 4,000 people to AFCA, a 15% rise over the last financial year. We had 779 complaints filed by consumer advocates over this time, nearly 70% of which came from financial counsellors.
People experiencing difficult circumstances
Significantly, almost one in five people represented by a consumer advocate in 2022–23 was either a victim survivor of family violence or experiencing poor mental health. We acknowledge the link between financial stress and wellbeing, and our role in helping alleviate some of that stress by resolving complaints fairly and efficiently, in the most accessible way possible.
How AFCA can help
AFCA adjusts its services based on individual needs. This includes:
- tailoring communication methods
- helping people understand and read information
- using interpreters and translating documents
- granting extended time for preparing information or legal advice
- prioritising cases, especially for people who are incarcerated, unwell or receiving medical, respite or palliative care
- referring to external support services when necessary; for example, domestic violence
- engaging with authorised representatives, such as disability workers, to help clients understand the complaints process.
While our new consumer portal will simplify the lodging of online complaints, we'll continue to offer robust phone support and other methods to service the needs of people requiring assistance, allowing them to share their story and engage in our process in an equitable manner.
Complaints referred to AFCA by consumer advocates
|
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
---|---|---|---|
Financial counsellor |
1,158 |
1,383 |
1,528 |
Community lawyers |
1,079 |
1,092 |
1,488 |
Support workers |
622 |
943 |
916 |
Total |
2,859 |
3,418 |
3,932 |
Complaints lodged by consumer advocates
|
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
---|---|---|---|
Financial counsellor |
429 |
479 |
534 |
Community lawyers |
270 |
324 |
204 |
Support workers |
45 |
37 |
41 |
Total |
744 |
840 |
779 |
Top five complaints by product
Product |
Total |
---|---|
Personal loans |
222 |
Home loans |
179 |
Credit cards |
70 |
Home building |
59 |
Personal transaction accounts |
36 |
Top five complaints by issue
Issue |
Total |
---|---|
Responsible lending |
174 |
Financial firm failure to respond to request for assistance |
146 |
Decline of financial hardship request |
81 |
Service quality |
45 |
Delay in claim handling |
44 |
Stage at which complaints closed
|
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
---|---|---|---|
Before referral |
5 |
4 |
5 |
Registration and Referral |
258 |
194 |
239 |
Jurisdictional review |
32 |
36 |
29 |
Case management 1 |
89 |
105 |
99 |
Case management 2 |
84 |
81 |
91 |
Preliminary Assessment |
34 |
26 |
37 |
Decision |
30 |
25 |
10 |
Of these complaints:
- 66% are closed
- 31% were closed at the Registration and Referral stage
- 35% related to financial difficulty (non-business)
- 71% related to credit products. The top three credit products were personal loans (222), home loans (179) and credit cards (70).
Complaints lodged by financial counsellors
- 534 complaints lodged
- 67% are closed
- 50% were closed at the Registration and Referral stage. Of these, 95% were resolved by the financial firm
- 42% relate to financial difficulty (non-business)
- 82% relate to credit products. The top three credit products were personal loans (187), home loans (125) and credit cards (56).
Stage at which complaints closed
|
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
---|---|---|---|
Before referral |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Registration and Referral |
185 |
158 |
182 |
Jurisdictional review |
18 |
24 |
16 |
Case management 1 |
64 |
69 |
64 |
Case management 2 |
61 |
66 |
69 |
Preliminary Assessment |
17 |
17 |
24 |
Decision |
13 |
5 |
3 |
Geographic spread
|
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
---|---|---|---|
ACT |
2% |
1% |
2% |
NSW |
12% |
13% |
16% |
NT |
3% |
5% |
5% |
QLD |
12% |
20% |
16% |
SA |
7% |
6% |
7% |
TAS |
2% |
3% |
1% |
VIC |
50% |
39% |
43% |
WA |
11% |
14% |
10% |
The impact of financial counselling services
56% of complaints were lodged by financial counsellors from 15 organisations:
- The Salvation Army Moneycare (54)
- Anglicare Victoria (50)
- Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (27)
- Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (26)
- Uniting Communities (21)
- Uniting Vic/Tas (17)
- CatholicCare NT (15)
- Child & Family Services (14)
- Primary Care Connect (13)
- St Vincent de Paul Society (WA) Inc (10)
- Mortgage Stress Victoria (10)
- Anglicare WA (10)
- Anglicare NT (10)
- Casey North Community Information & Support Service (10)
- Consumer Action Law Centre (10)
Complaints lodged by community lawyers
- 204 complaints lodged
- 62% are closed
- 35% were closed at the Registration and Referral Stage. Of these, 90% were resolved by the financial firm
- 22% of complaints related to financial difficulty (non-business)
- 51% related to credit products. The top three credit products were home loans (52), personal loans (32) and credit cards (11).
Stage at which complaints closed
|
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
---|---|---|---|
Before referral |
1 |
2 |
1 |
Registration and Referral |
56 |
29 |
44 |
Jurisdictional review |
11 |
9 |
12 |
Case management 1 |
17 |
30 |
30 |
Case management 2 |
22 |
9 |
21 |
Preliminary Assessment |
14 |
7 |
11 |
Decision |
15 |
20 |
7 |
The impact of community legal centres
68% of complaints were lodged by community lawyers from just 10 organisations:
- Legal Aid NSW (38)
- Mortgage Stress Victoria (29)
- Financial Rights Legal Centre (24)
- WEstjustice (13)
- Consumer Credit Legal Service WA Inc. (7)
- Redfern Legal Centre (6)
- Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (5)
- Consumer Action Law Centre (5)
- Caxton Legal Centre (5)
- Legal Aid Queensland (5)