Download!Download Point responsive WP Theme for FREE!

Financial Help for Brits who Migrate to Australia

Each year thousands of Brits take the plunge and migrate to sunny Australia. Packing up and moving comes with lots of unknown, one of which is money. What happens if you can’t find a job or an unexpected even occurs which drains your savings?

flags-890x395_c

Similar to the UK, the Australian government provides benefits and loans through Centrelink. They provide financial assistance, similar to that of budgeting loans and council support schemes.

Below is a summary of some of the more popular financial assistance programs provided for those dealing with financial issues. 

Centrelink

Your first stop should be to see if there are any loan options that you qualify through Centrelink, the government’s social welfare support system. If you are low income and already receiving income support through Centrelink this can be even easier.

Education Support

There are a number of re-training and educational support programs that either provide grants or loans to students that qualify. Austudy and ABSTUDY are both grant programs that help aboriginals and students get help with education costs if you qualify.

First Home Owner Grant  – is a federal grant for low income earners that are attempting to purchase their first real estate primary home. It allows up to $7000 in grant money to cover down payments and purchase costs for first time home buyers that are low income earners. Each state or territory also have similar programs.

Advanced Payments

This is simply and advance on benefit payments that you would generally receive. Essentially, if you are short of cash, you can access some of the cash you would normally receive from your next payment. The advance is really to help those dealing with cash flow problems.

In addition to the above, Centrelink provides numerous other financial assistance programs which cover all living needs.

Organizational Support      

Good Money is a national loan support organisation that is made up of three partnerships including Good Shepherd Microfinance, State governments and the National Bank of Australia. This organisation provides financial support by providing access not only to small loan programs, low and no interest loan programs but also to savings programs that help low income earners save and get matching funds and lastly get professional financial advice.  With the ability to get micro loans for a variety of purposes with low interest this options provides a great secondary market to get what you need.

Other local charitable organisations also provide a number of support loans or grants. These are often referred to as NILS or LILS, no interest or low interest loan schemes. The application process can take a couple weeks, but if you can wait that long often their terms are much more favourable than commercial lending institutions like banks. This website provides a great list of lenders offering these services.

If you check with your local State government, there is bound to be other loan options with your state or municipal government. There are also bound to be local organisations that may be able to help you in your time of need.