Craig had spent nearly a decade serving in the Army before he voluntarily discharged due to declining mental health.
Craig contacted Bravery Trust in April 2021 from Vietnam. He’d travelled there in 2020, to help improve his mental health. While over in Vietnam he’d lost money to a crypto currency scam and had spent his life savings.
Bravery Trust worked with other organisations to help bring Craig home to Australia. Once he was back, he was facing homelessness with large debts totaling more than $50,000 for personal loans & credit cards, and creditors seeking payment and threating legal action. This was contributing to his declining mental health as he had no income to repay these debts.
He’d been placed into temporary accommodation and provided with essential vouchers before he was referred to financial counselling. The financial counsellor worked with Craig to create a budget; this showed a deficit of over $300 per fortnight which was going to worsen when he transitioned into permanent housing. The financial counsellor contacted the creditors to negotiation hardship options on Craig’s behalf. Two creditors offered to waive the debts; a further creditor was still working out potential options.
* Name changed to protect privacy.
