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Assessment of eligibility : Contents

Risk rating for financial management

In determining the risk rating for financial management you are assessing whether the client is having financial difficulties that impact on their ability to sustain suitable alternative housing.

There are four levels of risk rating for financial management

At risk (4)

The client has a history of, or is experiencing, severe and persistent problems accessing and sustaining alternative housing and requires immediate assistance due to:

  • severe addiction problems (drug, alcohol, gambling) resulting in all or the majority of their income supporting their addiction
  • complete inability to budget and manage debt resulting in severe financial issues. For example, repossession of property, court or legal action and continually increasing debt, hire purchase, loans
  • rent arrears are in excess of two months and are mounting on a daily basis causing severe and persistent problems

Serious housing need (3)

The client has a history of, or is experiencing significant and persistent problems accessing and sustaining alternative housing due to:

  • serious addiction problems resulting in a major portion of income supporting addiction
  • serious inability to budget and manage debt resulting in income being used to pay debt instead of providing for household, for example, inadequate nutrition, clothing, security
  • rent arrears with no ability to repay debt

Moderate need (2)

The client is experiencing moderate problems accessing and sustaining alternative housing due to:

  • moderate addiction problem that consumes all discretionary income after minimum commitments met, for example no savings
  • budget and debt management are not maintained successfully resulting in a lack of provisions for household

Low or no need (1)

The client is experiencing low level or no problems accessing and sustaining alternative housing:

  • financial difficulties do not exist or low level inconvenience is sometimes experienced
  • no evidence of budget or debt management inability

Note the assessment is of the difficulties the client has in managing their finances. It is not expected that the client addresses their financial issue and therefore reduce their housing risk at this stage of the process.

For more information see:

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