The community and welfare services sector is unable to keep up with demand for services, a new report has found.

The community and welfare services sector is unable to keep up with demand for services, a new report has found.

One person in every 20 seeking help is being turned away – an almost 20 percent increase in just three years.

And as if working carers didn’t know it, funding levels have not kept up with demand.

Residential aged care services are experiencing the greatest increase in demand – a whopping 128 per cent increase.

Financial support services have experienced a 50 per cent increase in demand while support services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have experienced a 22 per cent increase.

These are the confronting facts that have come out of the ACOSS Australian Community Sector Survey 2011 released last month, August 2011.

The survey highlighted how more people have been turning to community and social services groups for help, leaving services unable to meet the growing demand.

This year there has been a 12 per cent increase in assistance provided by agencies. The 745 respondent organisations provided services on 6,180,282 occasions in 2009-10 compared to 5,513,780 instances in 2008-09.

Despite the overall increase in services delivered, the majority of organisations (55 per cent) indicated that they were still unable to meet the demand for their services.

People were denied services on approximately 345,000 occasions, equating to more than 1 in 20 eligible people seeking social services being turned away. This represents a 19 per cent increase on the 298,000 people turned away in 2008-09.

Services that people were turned away from in the highest numbers were housing/homelessness services (50,000 instances of clients turned away – up 22 per cent); mental health services (33,444 turnaways – down 11 percent); emergency relief (30,333 – up 49 per cent); youth services (21,862 – up 32 per cent); and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander support services (20,516 – up 34 per cent).

Almost half of all people seeking help were not in paid work. Factors contributing to their financial stress were inadequate income support payments (56 per cent); lack of affordable housing (42 per cent); long‐term unemployment (34 per cent); disability and/or mental illness (32 per cent); and rising cost of household utilities (25 per cent).

“These findings highlight the disconnect between the perception that Australia has fully recovered from the Global Financial Crisis and that most people are doing fine, with the stark reality that a growing group of people in Australia are simply not doing well,” said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie.

“The increasing number of people turning to the community welfare sector reflects the steep lag effects of the GFC, suggesting that the benefits of economic recovery have been unevenly distributed. It also reflects the gross inadequacy of basic social security payments, particularly for those who are not in paid work and the growing cost of living pressures more people are under, especially to keep an affordable roof over their head.

“This is borne out in the survey with nearly 50,000 instances in which people were turned away from homelessness and housing services, which equates to a total of 135 people turned away from these services on any given day in 2009-10 (22 per cent increase on 2008-09).

“This is a worrying picture. It highlights the urgent need for sustained action to ensure people can have at least adequate income support and assistance to tackle the roots of disadvantage, as well as support for the vital sector that is crucial to supporting people and preventing further disadvantage.

“Our survey shows this growing need for help is placing enormous strain on community services with almost all services experiencing heightened demand stating that funding levels have not kept pace with the increase in demand.

“ACOSS welcomed the Federal Government’s stimulus package following the GFC which went some way to alleviate the extra strain on people on the lowest incomes. We have also praised Commonwealth moves to remove red tape for the non-profit sector and its support for the continual viability of this crucial sector. However this latest survey is an urgent reminder of the reforms that are needed to achieve greater equality and fairness for us all."