For over three years, Gomeroi man Donald "Duck" Craigie and his partner Cheryl Fernando were unsure if they would ever see the thousands of dollars they put into failed funeral insurer Youpla.
"We joined so that we can bury ourselves, so our kids wouldn't have to pay for it," Ms Fernando said.
"We were virtually in limbo causing [us] undue pain and stress," Mr Craigie said.
But now they are among thousands of people who will finally get some of their money back, nearly two years after the scheme collapsed.
Youpla, previously known as the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF), collapsed in March 2022 after three decades of marketing funeral insurance to First Nations people.
However, concerns had been raised about the company for decades, including multiple court challenges by regulators for false and misleading conduct and for breaking anti-hawking laws.
The $97 million federal government scheme will start in July and cover anyone who held an active policy on or after August 1, 2015.
The scheme will:
- Offer Youpla's customers a payment of 60 per cent of their premiums, capped at the value of their insurance pay-out
- Give eligible customers the choice between receiving a low risk regulated funeral bond, or a cash payment
- Offer financial counselling under the Youpla Support Program
The federal government said it would accept applications from the company's former customers until June 2026.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney said the new scheme was expected to help more than 13,000 people.
"This measure will hopefully bring peace of mind to thousands of families impacted by the collapse of the Youpla Group," she said in a statement.
An interim program announced in 2022 to cover people affected by the company's collapse will continue until June this year.
Company accessed millions in Centrelink payments
From 2001 to 2017, the ACBF deducted premiums from customers' Centrelink payments through the government-administered scheme Centrepay.
This was allowed to happen even after the company was accused of falsely representing itself as Aboriginal-owned in 1999.
Two of its funds were also banned from taking new customers after it was found to have broken anti-hawking laws in 2004.
Mob Strong Debt Help financial counsellor, Save Sorry Business campaign coordinator and Boandik woman Bettina Cooper has been working for almost two years to get a resolution for Youpla customers.
She said the package was fair and recognised the failures of successive governments in allowing the company to access Centrepay for so many years.
"Centrepay basically facilitated the financial abuse of First Nations people by taking the first lot of their money — before even they had food — out of their pensions, and so that meant [Youpla] were guaranteed income," she said.
"The fact that it was allowed on Centrepay gave everybody the impression this company had a tick of approval, it was a good company — which is not what it played out to be.
"First Nations people would not have signed up for this company if it wasn't on Centrepay and if it didn't claim to be Aboriginal-owned."
Ms Burney described Youpla as a "horrid scam on the Indigenous community".
"We've made the decision [to step in] because we believed it was the responsible thing to do," she told the ABC's AM program.
'Pain and suffering'
Mr Craigie said he welcomed the scheme but would like to see further compensation for the "pain and suffering" caused to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
"I dare say they bloody well owe us compensation for this fiasco of the federal government and the regulators, who were supposed to be the police on the beat and supposed to have the teeth to deal with it," he said.
"We accept this as a first offer but it does not take in the angst of [the past years].
"It gives us less than two thirds of our money back."
The government changed the rules so the funeral provider could no longer access Centrepay in 2015, but court challenges meant it kept using the system until February 2017.
The company later admitted that it "lost" the details of 6,000 customers once it no longer had access to Centrepay, and those people were left without cover.
The government said the scheme will cover customers as far back as August 2015 to reflect that the Commonwealth removing policies from Centrepay affected vulnerable customers.
Affected customers can contact the Youpla Support Program online or via the National Indigenous Australians Agency on 1800 079 098.
The regulator ASIC is currently pursuing civil action against the company for false and misleading conduct, and some of its former directors for breaches of their duties.