Bushfires – where to get financial help?

On Monday nights I like to go to bed at around 9:30pm and listen to Q+A on ABC News Radio. It’s a thing I do.

Anyway, last night’s (3 February 2020) Q+A was on the devastating bushfires Australia has experienced and their impact on the people affected by them.

One of the folks who had lost their home and business down on the South Coast in New South Wales said that she cannot find where to get financial help. She said there is no single source that provides people with information on all the financial help that is available. Especially, for small businesses.

Here’s a link to last night’s panel https://iview.abc.net.au/show/qanda

I decided to investigate. She’s right. The help appears to be there. The thing is how easy and how quickly can it be accessed! I’m going to do some research on this in the next couple of weeks to see. It seems after a Google search there are several sources of help.

Finder and Canstar have useful articles that provide some guidance and a single source of information on what financial help is available.

This is the direct link to human services bushfire assistance.

What about if you are a primary producer or run a business?

Eligible primary producers, small businesses and not-for-profits in affected local government areas impacted by bushfires that have occurred since 31 August 2019, can now access special disaster loans of up to $500,000. There are two types of low interest loans available:

• The Bushfire Working Capital Loan of up to $50,000 over five years with a two year interest free and repayment free period; and
• The Bushfire Recovery Loan of up to $500,000 over ten years, with a two year interest and payment free period.

See this link for more information.

I’ll report back after further research in the next week.

Photo credit: Photo by Hamish Weir on Unsplash