Lifeline WA swamped by financial distress calls as cost of living pressures pinch

Financial distress calls prompted by cost of living pressures have swamped critical counselling service Lifeline WA — as crisis calls reach record-breaking levels in the lead-up to Christmas. Almost 290 calls, texts and web chats from West Aussies in distress were received every day in November, marking the worst month in the organisation’s history. The 8647 crisis alerts across 30 days were up a whopping 66 per cent on the 5183 calls in November last year. Lifeline WA chief operations officer Natalie Martinovich said the huge demand indicated a “high level of distress in WA”. “We are now receiving a lot more calls from people who are in financial distress, who are very concerned about the rising cost of living and some who are facing the threat of becoming homeless,” Ms Martinovich said. Families were knocked this week after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates for the eighth consecutive time. On Tuesday, the RBA hiked the cash rate by 25 basis points, bringing it to 3.1 per cent — the highest level since 2012. While Christmas is notoriously a stressful time for families and a busy time for the service, Ms Martinovich said the extra cost-of-living pressures exacerbate the situation. “We find people are often very stressed in the lead-up to Christmas, with financial pressures and the challenges of spending time with family members where there may be fractured relationships,” she said. “We also, unfortunately, see the outcome of this pressure leads to more calls regarding domestic violence.” Ms Martinovich made a desperate plea for more volunteers to come forward to help combat demand and for West Aussies to donate through their Christmas appeal. “We want to be able to answer every call for help,” she said. “We have set an ambitious goal of doubling the size of our crisis support volunteer workforce next year and are aiming to train an extra 300 volunteers to answer calls, text and chat. “But it costs up to $4000 to train each of those volunteers so we are hoping the WA community will support us by making a donation to our Lights for Lifeline WA Christmas appeal.” She said the holidays can be a lonely time of year when people can feel “very isolated”. The increase in demand also comes at a time when several crisis centres in the eastern states were heavily impacted due to flooding, putting more pressure on the remaining centres around the country to take more calls. Ms Martinovich said the WA centre, which is the biggest in the country, was already contributing the second highest number of volunteer hours nationally, but wanted to do more. “We are grateful for the support from the community and our corporate partners to do that,” she added.