FinCap has asked for government support its call for steady funding of the financial mentoring sector.

Following our request to speak to the committee about the issues the sector is currently facing, CE Fleur Howard, Senior Policy Advisor, Jake Lilley and financial mentor and manager of Auckland Central Budgeting Consultants, Teresa White, appeared before the select committee on Wednesday 13 May.

We specifically asked the committee to support our call for steady funding of the financial mentoring sector by:

• asking officials to do some modelling on the actual costs and benefits of a fully funded professionalised and sustainable financial mentoring workforce that doesn't rely on volunteers.
• exploring the opportunity for a forum between government, financial mentors and essential services businesses to discuss the potential for industry contributions to financial mentos' essential work
• writing to senior ministers asking them to express public support for industry contributions to essential financial mentor funding and consider our industry co-funding paper's proposed amendments to the Financial Markets Authority levy.

Auckland financial mentor, Teresa White provided context around our ask with examples of the amazing work that financial mentors do day to day to work through people's complex financial difficulties when they have nowhere else to turn. Financial mentors closed 30,000 financial hardship cases that were in our systemin 2025. That's a 57% increase since 2021.

In a recent survey showed that 40% of financial mentors' time is taken up responding to requests for help with KiwiSaver hardship withdrawals. This is not fault of KiwiSaver providers, but financial mentors' work does ultimately benefit them - whether it's alternative options found to alleviate hardship, or a clear plan for the withdrawn amount is made. That is why we have signalled this as the first industry we're looking to for levies.

We also discussed the loopholes created by current attachment orders settings - with almost 9 out of 10 payments from attachment orders for private debt coming out of income support.

We asked the select committee to consider:

• an inquiry into hardship from attachment orders on benefits
• a moratorium on payments from benefits while a review is done
• a forum for government, court and community organisation representatives involved in creating or resolving hardship from court orders
• an investigation of the possibility of Judgement Proof Debtor protections, similar to what has been in place in Australia for 40 years.

Watch FinCap's presentation to the Social Services and Community Committee here

Read our industry co-funding proposal here