Life Without Debt Ltd is an Australian charity, in formation, building a first-of-kind service that removes consumer debt from households facing terminal illness — and prevents that debt from transferring to surviving family members. This page is written for foundation program officers. It is a factual brief, not a fundraising appeal.
Or use our enquiry form: /enquire — every submission is logged, acknowledged within one business day, and routed to Carla.
Australian consumer-credit law contains statutory hardship remedies that most households do not know exist and cannot access without a licensed advocate. Terminal illness compresses the window in which those remedies can be pursued. Without intervention, unpaid consumer debt transfers on death to surviving spouses and adult children — as guarantors, co-borrowers, or estate liabilities — a pattern we call Sexually Transmitted Debt.
Our intervention is licensed advocacy delivered at the referral point of palliative care. It closes the window before it becomes generational. Grants fund the advocacy hours. The evidence base builds a case for government funding of the service model by Year 3, which is when Room A grantmaking has done its most important work: establishing the evidence that institutions with far more capital can respond to.
Read the full theory of change document →
Every room in the house is built on the same three-part payload: a Story that names the problem, Trust anchored in governance and licensure, and Data that shows the intervention works. Room A weights the Data heaviest. Here is the shape of each.
A household enters palliative care already carrying consumer debt. A statutory hardship pathway exists but is invisible without an advocate. Without intervention, that debt transfers to the surviving spouse or adult children — often unnoticed until a demand notice arrives after the funeral. Our intervention closes that window while the primary borrower is still alive to sign consent.
ACL 387398 for consumer-credit negotiation. Skills-based independent board. Salary cap policy published in the constitution. Overhead absorbed by a related for-profit so grant dollars reach household service directly. ACNC registration and DGR endorsement in progress. No policy advocacy, no political affiliation, no religious criteria.
Four measured outputs per case, published quarterly. Independent evaluation partner engaged before first case intake. Cross-case pattern analysis feeds an annual audited impact report. The evidence base is the deliverable — it makes the next foundation grant, the next corporate partnership, and eventually the Year-3 government submission possible.
Principle two of the Life Without Debt framework is that evaluation is the business model — not a reporting overhead. Every case adds to an evidence base that makes the next grant application stronger, the next corporate pitch more credible, and eventually the Year-3 government submission possible. Foundations investing in Room A are investing in the evidence infrastructure itself.
These principles govern every funding room, every application, and every line of copy on this site. Inconsistency across rooms destroys credibility, so we hold to them literally.
LWD provides free consumer-debt advocacy to Australian households where one member has a specialist-certified terminal illness. A licensed advocate negotiates with creditors under statutory hardship provisions, activates life-insurance terminal-illness benefits held via superannuation, and pursues waivers where death is imminent. The measurable outcomes are total debt extinguished per closed case and total inter-generational liability prevented from transferring to surviving family.
Company limited by guarantee incorporated with ASIC. ACNC charity registration and DGR endorsement applications in preparation. Board formation and independent-director recruitment underway. First case intake targeted for the quarter following DGR endorsement. Advocacy capability already licensed via the related entity Credit Mediation Services Pty Ltd (ACL 387398).
Every case has four measured outputs: total debt extinguished, inter-generational liability prevented, case cycle time from referral to closure, and household-reported financial-stress reduction. Aggregate outcome data is reported to foundation partners quarterly. Annual audited impact report published alongside the financials. Independent evaluation partner engaged before the first case intake.
Not yet. DGR endorsement is in application. This page does not solicit donations from foundations; it invites a discovery call. Grants will be formalised after ACNC registration and DGR endorsement are complete, at which point tax deductibility applies to eligible gifts. Foundations that want to be involved earlier can partner on capacity grants under standard non-DGR grant terms.
Carla is the Board-Appointed CFO Advisor. Room A conversations are questions of fit — theory of change, evaluation framework, and governance — not questions of persuasion. The right person to answer them is the person who signs off on the numbers. A dedicated fundraising conversation follows only if the fit is right.
Not a fundraising ask. A structured 30-minute Zoom to walk through the theory of change, the evaluation framework, and the governance model — so you can decide whether Life Without Debt Ltd is a fit for your foundation’s systems-change portfolio.
Compliance note. Life Without Debt Ltd is a company in formation. ACNC registration and DGR endorsement are pending. This page does not solicit donations and makes no tax-deductibility claim. It does not engage in political advocacy. It does not depict any identifiable beneficiary; any case-pattern narrative is a composite drawn from published Australian hardship-industry research. Consumer-credit advocacy is delivered under Australian Credit Licence 387398 held by Credit Mediation Services Pty Ltd. No identifying beneficiary detail appears anywhere on this site.