Prabakaran is struggling with his bills. Energy and phone costs are piling up, and he's worried he might not be able to make his rent this month. He's under added pressure after his family arrived in Australia to stay with him. He's already tried getting help online, but was unsuccessful.
In a heavy green winter jacket he walks into an innocuous second floor meeting room in the Dandenong Civic Centre. The room is bustling with people just like Prabakaran who need help with their bills.
Some have lost their jobs, some are struggling with visa conditions, another has just moved into a private rental and is finding it hard to make ends meet without a driver's licence.
Prabakaran attends Bring Your Bills Day. Image: Brendan Kearns
A small army of volunteers in fluorescent orange and yellow hi-vis jackets buzz around the room approaching people as they enter. Printed on the back of their vests: "I speak Dari, Farsi, Hazaragi", "I speak Punjabi", "Hindi", "Burmese", "Urdu".
The volunteers ask people what they need help with – be it banking, utilities, housing, credit cards, or something else money-related.
The room is bustling with people just like Prabakaran who need help with their bills
They point people in the direction of the lines of tables staffed by representatives from energy companies, telcos, banks, consumer organisations and more.
Prabakaran came in for help with his AGL and Optus bills. After speaking with an Optus representative, he was able to reduce his quarterly bill by nearly $50. "Today I am very happy," he says.
Another attendee, Jenne, thinks the Bring Your Bills Day event is a "very good" idea. After losing his job, getting help with his AGL bill makes a difference.
Rachna Madaan, South East Community Links. Image: Brendan Kearns
Getting help during a cost-of-living crisis
Over 400 community members will come through for South East Community Links' (SECL) seventh Bring Your Bills Day event.
The program connects people with their providers so they can get help with learning their rights, paying their bills, and setting up hardship programs. SECL ran the first Bring Your Bills Day event last year in their own office expecting only 50 people to attend. Some 250 turned up.
Bring Your Bills Day has continued growing to meet community demand and has helped over 1000 people in the past financial year. Some Dandenong residents have been particularly exposed to the increase in the cost of living: the unemployment rate there is twice the Victorian average.
The program connects people with their providers so they can get help with learning their rights, paying their bills, and setting up hardship programs
"In the current cost-of-living and housing stress that everyone is experiencing, the bills are really hitting the back pocket," says Rachna Madaan Bowman, a senior practitioner of financial wellbeing with SECL.
"Stakeholders basically work with them in setting up hardship arrangements or telling them what their consumer rights are and helping them navigate the system."
In Dandenong, in Melbourne South-Eastern suburbs, hundreds of people are attending a ‘Bring Your Bills Day’. Organisers say the interest shows how hard the cost of living crisis is hitting migrant communities.
Making a difference
Bowman says this event makes "a huge difference" for the community.
"At one of our events, one community member said to us he didn't even know that he was eligible to get help and one of his friends insisted that he attend," she says.
"The advice and support he was able to get from the banks and the utilities and the council was absolutely life-changing for him."
People gathering on Bring Your Bills Day. Image: Brendan Kearns
Helping diverse communities
Volunteers at the event speak at least nine different languages in total to help the multicultural community in Melbourne's south-east.
Over 70% of the households in Dandenong speak a language other than English at home – more than twice the Victorian average. The community also has the largest number of people seeking asylum of any municipality in Victoria.
Bowman says language can be a barrier when accessing systems like Centrelink and Services Australia, both of which also have stalls here.
"Language plays such an important role," says Bowman. "When someone is talking about money, you need to destigmatise asking for help."
She says that removing language barriers "gives people the ability to go: 'I have a right and I have the dignity to engage with the systems' in equal measure like any one of us do."
The hi-vis vest of a volunteer. Image: Brendan Kearns
What next?
Bowman says Bring Your Bills Day will be a "flagship" program for SECL. "This will be an ongoing thing that we will do and we'll definitely be looking at how we can reach a wider group of Victorians with their bills."
"It actually empowers them to take matters into their own hands the next time, because they now know they are informed as to what they can do when the next bill comes
"It's just a very simple idea, but it's how you collaborate with industry who can actually offer tangible support to people on the day and having that trust with the community as well," she says.
Community organisations and local councils run Bring Your Bills events across Australia. Check online to find one close to you.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
