The Salvation Army released its National Economic and Social Impact Survey yesterday, which surveyed 2400 people who visited Salvation Army centres across Australia, and found the nation’s poorest had just $18 a day to live on once rent was paid.

Captain Grounds said while most disadvantaged families in Orange survived week to week on what income or government support they could get, it was unexpected costs that pushed them to seek help from the charity.

Of the 322 families that received $55,800 in financial support from the Orange office between July 2014 and April 2015, Captain Grounds said approximately three quarters were one-off emergency relief recipients.

“It’s the things you can’t budget or plan for that really catch people out. For instance I know of someone recently who had to travel several hundred kilometres for a court case. There’s no allowance for things like that in their budgets, it can make things really awkward and difficult,” he said.

He said the public perception that welfare recipients were lazy and found it easier to take money from charities rather than finding work was wrong and unhelpful to the cause,

“There’s always some level of truth behind stereotypes, otherwise they wouldn’t exist, but it is not the majority, it is a very small minority,” Captain Grounds said.

“We are the last port of call for many people, after they’ve exhausted all their other options, like borrowing money from their parents or relatives or friends. Most of the time, they don’t want to come to us.”

Salvation Army Doorways case manager Cushla Matthews said a culmination of problems forced families to seek out financial help.

“There’s so many things that can happen; emotional hardship, domestic violence, they can lose their job. There’s so many issues that you can’t pick just one,” Ms Matthews said.