Category Archives: Youpla/ACBF funeral fund

Youpla profits surged after it was approved for federal government’s automatic payments system

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New data reveals the scale of how many Indigenous people were impacted by the disgraced funeral fund

New data has revealed disgraced funeral fund ACBF-Youpla’s profits skyrocketed by tens of millions of dollars after the company was approved for the federal government’s automatic payments system Centrepay.

ACBF-Youpla collapsed in March 2022 leaving thousands of Aboriginal people, some of them elderly and in palliative care, without the means to pay for funerals. Families resorted to crowdfunding and some were forced to leave their loved ones’ bodies in the morgue while they raised the funds.

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Youpla victims asking ‘when they should die’ to be eligible for funeral relief, advocates say

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Government urged to give ‘certainty’ to more than 13,000 Aboriginal policy holders of defunct fund

Terminally ill Aboriginal people are asking “when they should die” in order to be eligible for emergency relief set up after the financial collapse of a predatory funeral scheme left thousands of vulnerable Indigenous families without the means to pay for a funeral.

First Nations advocates and victims are urging the federal government to give “certainty” to the more than 13,000 Aboriginal policy holders of the defunct ACBF-Youpla funeral fund as soon as possible.

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Youpla collapse: ACCC warns funeral directors against ripping off victims

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Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says people should not reveal to funeral providers they are eligible for payments from government scheme

The consumer watchdog has warned funeral directors against ripping off victims of the Youpla collapse by increasing the prices it charges to people who are eligible for payments from a government scheme.

People who are eligible for a payment from the scheme shouldn’t reveal this to funeral services providers while negotiating a quote, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Wednesday.

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Youpla funeral fund collapse: minister seeks advice on compensating victims

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Stephen Jones says he needs to know scale of problem before committing to redress scheme

The new minister for financial services has asked Treasury for advice on how to compensate Indigenous people who were victims of the collapse of the funeral expenses fund Youpla.

Stephen Jones, who was sworn in last Wednesday after Labor’s election victory, stopped short of committing the Albanese government to compensating the victims, telling Guardian Australia he first needed to understand how big the problem was.

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Consumer groups urge Asic to mount full investigation into collapsed funeral fund Youpla

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Letter from Save Sorry Business coalition also asks that regulator continue misleading and deceptive conduct case against company in federal court

Consumer groups have written to the corporate regulator, asking it to mount a full investigation into whether civil or criminal action can be pursued against people involved in Youpla, a funeral insurance group that has collapsed leaving at least 13,000 Indigenous people without coverage.

In a letter to the chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Joe Longo, the groups also ask that the regulator continue a court case against Youpla, alleging it engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct, even though the group has collapsed.

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Linda Burney says investigating Youpla funeral fund will be ‘top of my agenda’

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Incoming Indigenous affairs minster says predicament of families affected by collapse of predatory funeral fund is ‘totally unacceptable’

Linda Burney will make an investigation into the predatory funeral fund ACBF-Youpla one of her “highest priorities” on taking over as Indigenous affairs minister, after Guardian Australia revealed new details of its collapse, which left more than 13,000 people facing the probable loss of everything they had paid into the fund.

“I assure people that this is the top of my agenda, probably the first thing that needs to be resolved, and I will do that carefully,” Burney told Guardian Australia.

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