A group of Bendigo community service students held an advocacy stall in Hargreaves Mall on Thursday, handing out pamphlets containing the names and contact details of emergency assistance services operating in the city. 

Trainer Laura Mahoney said her students wanted to empower those in hardship, giving them the capacity to improve their circumstances.

“If you don’t know where services are, you’ve got no hope,” she said. 

“This is something people can take away in the hope they will be able to get help. It’s about not being judgmental, not moralising.” 

The Australian Council of Social Services revealed this week 13 per cent of Australians are living below the poverty line, including 730,000 children.

Among the supports available to financially and socially disadvantaged people were federal government grants to cover power, gas and water supply. Those eligible for a Utility Relief Grant can receive up to $500 for six months’ worth of bills.

Still, an Energy and Water Ombudsman of Victoria report this week found central Victorian locales among places most likely to face debt collection and power disconnection because of unpaid bills. 

In 2015-16, Central Goldfields shire saw 13 cases of debt collection reported to the EWOV, up almost 50 per cent from the previous financial year. 

Both Central Goldfields and Loddon municipalities also had more than one in every 1000 power customers disconnected from their utilities in the twelve months before July.

Nearly a third of all reported cases occurred in regional Victoria.  

But an overall drop of 19 per cent in credit cases prompted ombudsman Cynthia Gebert to say power and water companies were becoming more adept at handling disputes with customers. 

“We believe this is largely due to more attention by energy retailers to preventing the escalation of less complex hardship complaints,'' she said. “We've often said that many of the complaints EWOV receives wouldn't come to us if companies paid more attention to addressing problems when their customers first raise them.'”