A coalition representing thousands of Indigenous people targeted by failed funeral insurer Youpla has expressed its disappointment that the May budget contained nothing for them.
Formerly known as the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, Youpla collapsed last year leaving thousands of Indigenous families without funeral insurance and out of pocket for years and sometimes decades worth of payments.
The insurer had a long history of targeting Aboriginal communities and had its licence to sell insurance products revoked following the Royal Commission into the banking sector.
Wangkumara woman and member of the Save Sorry Business Coalition, Lynda Edwards, says while they were left disappointed by Tuesday night’s budget, a meeting with the government earlier this week has them hopeful for a resolution.
“We’re really disappointed that there wasn’t anything in the budget but we did have a face-to-face with Minister [Linda} Burney earlier this week…where we were advised there wouldn’t be anything in this budget.
I know I came away from that conversation very positive that she’s very committed to actually having something in place before the interim scheme expires in November 2023.”
An interim scheme for policy holders who passed away after April 1 2020 is set to expire in November.
