Helping vulnerable Australians to stay connected

The Telstra Top Up program, now in its 10th year, aims to assist vulnerable Australians in maintaining critical connection to loved ones and online resources by providing a pre-paid mobile recharge valued at $180 including calls, text messages and 70GB of data with six months expiry.

Running in partnership with Infoxchange since July 2019, previously the program offered 3 separate $40 monthly recharges each valid for 28 days, with a focus on availability to Australians affected by homelessness, family violence, or natural disasters.

The past 12 months has seen Infoxchange work closely with Telstra in expanding the range of services, rolling out the boosted Telstra Top Up program, now available to community service organisations that support vulnerable women, youth and families, First Nations communities or refugees, or community members impacted by homelessness, natural disaster, domestic and family violence, mental health, disability, financial difficulty or food insecurity.

Available through Infoxchange’s Client Case Management system and through the Telstra Financial Assistance team, the initiative has facilitated 15,000 instances of mobile pre-paid top ups via community partners and provided over $2.4 million worth of support in the last financial year. The expansion of Telstra Top Ups has seen 350 additional agencies registered for a total of 895 community partners accessing the program in FY2024.

Wesnet, peak body for Specialist Women's Domestic and Family Violence Services, were one of the top users for this year.

“Wesnet has been grateful to access the Telstra Top Up program through Infoxchange over the past few years. Our clients, all of whom are experiencing domestic violence, have been able to access credit for their Telstra Prepaid phones,” said CEO of Wesnet, Karen Bentley.

“This program has provided our clients safety and security by being able to connect with family, friends and crisis services in times of need.”

Karen Bentley, CEO Wesnet.

Looking to the future, we are working hard to explore more ways we can harness our technology, deliver improvements and efficiencies with an aim to grow the program even further, giving more opportunities for those experiencing vulnerability to stay connected to the people and services supporting them.

In the past financial year, we are proud to report:

• 15,000 instances of mobile pre-paid top ups by our community partners via Infoxchange's Client & Case Management System
• over $2,400,000 worth of support in FY2024
• 350 additional agencies registered in FY2024
• 895 community partners accessing the program in FY2024

For more information on accessing the Telstra Top Up program, please click here.