Effective from January 2026

Approved by: Chief Operations Officer

At a Glance

Occasionally, a participant may ask Thrive Group Australia to perform a specific task that might require handling money for them, such as grocery shopping. We acknowledge there are risks associated with handling participants’ money and have developed this policy to provide clear direction on how to handle participants’ money during a service.

Scope

This policy applies to all participants and workers, Third Party Partners, and Thrive Group Australia Staff.

Objective

The purpose of this policy is to:

• Ensure participants and workers understand the risks of handling participants’ money.
• Set out the Thrive Group Australia’s position when a participant asks us to handle their money while providing a service.
• Ensure workers take appropriate steps in handling a participants money to avoid a potential disagreement or misunderstanding and to protect the participants interests.

Definitions

• In this policy, reference to participants money includes using a participants EFTPOS / debit / credit card (using Tap & Go or payWave), a reloadable debit card, or cash.

Policy Statements

• We respect each participants right to maintain their independence, including managing their finances.
• We will use our best endeavours to ensure that:
  • If a participant asks workers to handle their money in the course of providing services, we do so on a transparent basis.
  • If an issue does arise, we investigate the issue and take appropriate action.
• We acknowledge the risks of working with participants’ money, including:
  • Misappropriation/theft, e.g. a worker uses their position to steal money from a participant.
  • Mishandling, e.g. where a worker accidentally loses a participant's money.
  • Misunderstanding, e.g. a participant believes they gave the worker more money than they did.