It comes after many central Victorians lost jobs when coronavirus protection restrictions closed businesses.

Thousands are also working and learning from home.

Financial counselors say low income, casual and part time employees will be affected the most by job losses and struggling businesses.

Accountants say many people's gas, electricity and internet costs are also likely to increase as they spend more time at home.

Read more: Lawyers offer free advice in wake of coronavirus

Bendigo Family and Financial Services general manager Jenny Elvey said she expected some demand for support when families got their next set of bills.

But Ms Elvey expected this need to soar after the following round of bills.

She said when lockdown finished a lot of people would have lost their jobs completely.

Many would struggle once extra payments such as JobKeeper and the increased JobSeeker wound up, Ms Elvey said.

The federal government has instituted both for a six month period.

Ms Elvey said she expected to see demand for financial counselling and food relief spike in three to six months time, to help people get through until they could find employment.

Read more: More Bendigonians in need, but Foodshare says worst still to come

Ms Elvey said people often avoided paying utilities first, then food, when facing financial strain.

She said people often struggled to pay rent and sometimes even avoided filling prescriptions.

Ms Elvey urged anyone struggling to get support early on, rather than wait until the problem got bigger.

"We're a free service, we're here for anyone to use," she said.

"Some people feel that they can battle through it. But my advice would be to try and get onto it sooner rather than later to try and save some of the heart ache."

Ms Elvey said she would also support a permanent rise to the rate of Newstart. She said this would allow people to feed and clothe themselves properly, and prevent homelessness.

"It's a vicious circle for them. They pay one debt, get behind in another, and there's just not the money there to support them to live," she said.

Read more: Bendigo welfare groups rally to demand Newstart rate raise

Workers can claim some of the costs of working from home as tax deductions.

But a Bendigo accountant has warned this system benefited higher income earners more than lower.

AFS & Associates business services director Dennis Barnett said someone on a higher rate of pay would get more tax back per dollar claimed.

"This is a really bizarre thing with the tax system is, the lower income earners are assessed at lower tax rates, but because they're assessed at lower tax rates they don't get bang for their buck," he said.

But Mr Barnett said most people should end up fairly square in terms of the costs of working from home, depending on a few variables.

He said electricity, gas and water bills were all likely to increase for those working from home.

Read more: Fewer people are reaching out to a Bendigo emergency relief service

Mr Barnett said people could claim a deduction if they had incurred the expense, it was related to how they earned their income, and they had a record to prove it.

So this would include internet payments, home office equipment and a portion of relevant bills, he said.

But he said people working from home because of COVID-19 couldn't claim items such as coffee and tea, or any portion of their rental payments, mortgage or rates.

Mr Barnett also pointed people to the Australian Taxation Office's shortcut method, which allowed people working from home to claim a flat rate of 80 cents per hour spent working from home.

Contact Bendigo Family and Financial Services on 5441 5277.

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