The City of Casey, located in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs, remains one of the fastest growing regions in Australia, and is home to the highest population of any municipality in Victoria
City of Casey
The City of Casey, Victoria’s largest local government area, is leading the way in understanding the levels of financial hardship in their community and its impact.
Data from Equifax has assisted the council to better utilise resources and initiate local intervention strategies, with the long term goal of helping to prevent and limit the effects of financial hardship in its community.
Problem
The City of Casey needed to quantify feedback from non-government organisations and charities that financial stress was not only occurring, but increasing within the local government area.
Financial Stress Indicator Report from Equifax assisted City of Casey to benefit from the data and accurately gauge the level of financial stress at a community level. The report offered a picture of financial hardship using a combination of aggregated credit demand and credit risk data, population data and descriptions of the socio-economic characteristics of the area.
Austin Brown, Solutions Consultant at Equifax, said the report helped local government areas to examine the correlation between aggregated credit demand and credit risk data and those in the community experiencing financial hardship or credit stress.
"The data in the Financial Stress Indicator Report from Equifax provides local government areas with a longitudinal view of the financial status of their area, allowing them to monitor the effectiveness of intervention strategies over time.
The data... provides local government areas with a longitudinal view of the financial status of their area, allowing them to monitor the effectiveness of intervention strategies over time
"Unlike other socio-economic data, which is only recorded every few years, the report from Equifax provides data in real time - Equifax sends the Casey local government area quarterly updates, giving them data that is accurate and timely", Austin said.
Solution
With a clearer understanding of the levels of financial hardship in their area, the City of Casey has been able to identify and more appropriately allocate resources and budget to assist the areas in most need.
Asok Rao, Team Leader, City Strategy at City of Casey, said the report from Equifax provided a unique insight into the City of Casey.
“We’ve been able to identify pockets within Casey’s local government area where indicators of financial stress are greatest or have emerged – something we haven’t had access to at a local level. This has assisted us with modeling for allocation of resources, as well as the development of intervention strategies to help support the local community,” Asok said.
We’ve been able to identify pockets within Casey’s local government area where indicators of financial stress are greatest or have emerged
Specifically, the Casey local government area has also used the Equifax report as evidence within planning applications.
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