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Almost half of Tasmania’s community service organisations say financial pressure has forced them to reduce services and even more have had to turn people in need away. They're urging the Tasmanian Government to increase funding, saying the current rate isn't keeping up with growing costs and demand.

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00:03For decades, the Jordan River Service has supported people in Hobart's northern suburbs.
00:08But its funding hasn't kept pace with ever-increasing costs and rising demand.
00:13The financial pressure has forced it to close its community shed, stop providing fresh fruit
00:19and vegetable boxes and condense opening hours to four days a week.
00:23It's not a nice feeling.
00:24You don't want to turn anyone away or refuse to be able to provide food.
00:29A survey of more than a hundred Tasmanian community organisations found more than half expect
00:34to lose money this financial year.
00:37And only one in five consider themselves financially viable.
00:4148% have had to reduce their services due to those financial pressures, while nearly two
00:46thirds have had to turn people away because of a lack of resources.
00:50It's a very broad snapshot of an industry that unfortunately is in crisis.
00:57The community ends up losing out because we have to reduce services or staff or programs
01:02or hours.
01:04So, yeah, that's the boat that I think we're all in.
01:07The Tasmanian Council of Social Service is calling on the state government to update the
01:11indexation rate, which it uses to automatically increase funding each year.
01:163% doesn't even match some of the wage increases that have either come in already or are anticipated
01:23to come in in the future.
01:24The state government says it's working with the sector to reach longer term funding agreements,
01:29and it's committed to reviewing the indexation level, but not until next financial year.
01:35We'll see you in this video.
01:35Thank you for your attention.
01:37You
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