The Saver Plus program has celebrated two decades of supporting families and individuals on tight budgets to develop life-long savings habits.
Established by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL) and ANZ, with ongoing support from The Smith Family and Berry Street, the Saver Plus program stands as Australia’s longest-running financial education and matched savings initiative.
Saver Plus helps lower income Australians to build financial skills and confidence and receive up to $500 matched savings for education costs for themselves or their families.
Participants set a goal, save for 10 months, attend online financial education workshops and at the end of the program have their savings doubled by ANZ, which is used towards education-related items such as laptops, uniforms or excursions.
More than 1400 families in Fraser have saved a collective $725,000 through their involvement with Saver Plus.
BSL’s executive director Travers McLeod said the team is incredibly proud of the positive difference Saver Plus has made.
“It has become a lifelong resource for improved financial wellbeing and confidence for so many Australians and helped to ease the stress of educational expenses, especially those very daunting back-to-school costs. We’re excited about growing the impact of Saver Plus even more in the years to come,” he said.
Joining the milestone celebration at the electorate office of Fraser MP Dr Daniel Mulino, was local Sunshine resident Tham who had completed the program, staff from ANZ and the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and Brimbank mayor Ranka Rasic and deputy mayor Jae Papalia.
“It was great to hear so many stories of how the program has changed lives,” Dr Mulino said. “Because what is so powerful about Saver Plus is that not only does it significantly improve people’s financial literacy and their engagement with financial products, which is important, but it significantly improves people’s overall wellbeing.”
