The $1b idea for early intervention as rate rise looms over struggling families

November 4, 2026 — 5:00am

Frontline domestic violence, homelessness and mental health service providers are demanding a $1 billion pre-election funding commitment from the state government as they anticipate the interest rate hike will further strain community groups already overrun with calls for help.

More than 11 charities, unions and church groups have written an open letter to the Minns government urging an overhaul of state funding, which they say focuses on crisis support but leads to ballooning wait lists for early intervention services.

Uniting director of advocacy and external relations Emma Maiden said: “We’re parking the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, and we’re not putting that fence at the top of the cliff.”

The group is on Wednesday calling for the state government to introduce a “preventing harm framework”, under which funding would be targeted to reach at-risk people at earlier stages, before they are in crisis.

Maiden said Tuesday’s rate rise would put further pressure on Uniting’s support services, where an increase in working families experiencing poverty is driving a surge in demand for help.

“We’re already exceeding the number of people that we’re funded to service in our family support services by about 30 per cent due to increasing demand. So we just try and make those dollars stretch further,” she said.

“Community organisations are already turning people away, and every rate rise adds more pressure on households and adds to that queue.”

Reducing wait times for help is one of the core goals of the campaign. Domestic Violence NSW reports waitlists regularly exceed three months, while the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found an average of 31 requests for emergency accommodation were going unassisted every day in NSW.

Minto single mother Salote Moso, 27, was financially dependent on her ex-partner, who she said would take control of her money to the point of denying her $20 for her Opal card. Moso said when she questioned his spending, he would become aggressive.

When she decided to leave the controlling relationship, Moso couch surfed with her infant son while she waited a month to secure financial support.

Since Moso was at risk of homelessness, she was connected with a social worker with a two-week wait time, but those two weeks weighed heavily as she was forced to skip meals to put food on the table for her son.

“I was mostly on survival mode the whole time … I’m not really proud of it, but there came a point where I started thinking dark thoughts,” Moso said.

“With a long waiting time, it can also be isolating because then you’re starting to think or feel like, oh, what if they’ve forgotten about me?”

NSW Council of Social Service policy and advocacy director Ben McAlpine said when people reached out for help but got stuck on lengthy wait lists, it could erode their trust in the system and in government.

NCOSS was one of the signatories of the open letter, which argues a $1 billion investment over four years will unlock savings by reducing the strain on crisis services and getting people back on their feet earlier.

“The NSW government cannot set interest rates, but it can decide to fund early intervention instead of paying for crisis later, and that’s at the core of this conversation,” McAlpine said.

The campaign, dubbed Right Help, Right Time, faces an uphill battle to secure its $1 billion demand as the state government faces pressure to rein in spending ahead of the March election.

In the June budget, the government committed an additional $184.1 million to six specialist domestic violence services.

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