From March 30 to April 5 just 44 people called the National Debt Helpline operated by Anglicare Tasmania, the organisation's financial counselling service coordinator Jonathan Turk said.

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That number is down on the 70 people who called during the same week last year when there was no coronavirus pandemic.

"What we think is happening is the calm before the storm, it's a little bit like that nation-wide at the moment," Mr Turk said.

"There's also a lot of extra support coming from the government at the moment so we think people are waiting to see how that'll affect the situation.

"Also people are in shock and they're adjusting to other things perhaps before they look at their finances."

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Mr Turk agreed that another reason people might not seek help was because they might feel a sense of a shame about their situation.

"I've seen in my period of time, people from top level CEOs through to everyday workers coming through to see the service," he said.

"There's no shame in it. If you need help, you need help.

"While there is a bit of stigma associated with that, what everyone is experiencing now will hopefully change that, a bit like the stigma of people receiving welfare. That's going to have to shift a little bit because everyone's going to have received it at some level over the next six months because of where we're at."

Misconceptions about what financial counsellors do and who they help could also be a barrier to people accessing assistance, Mr Turk said.

"Historically people have thought financial counsellors mainly deal with people on what they consider to be welfare, which is people on Newstart.

"The reality is we have a range of people that come to see us from multiple backgrounds because most people are only one adverse life experience away from being in financial distress."

Any member of the community could access the National Debt Helpline, Mr Turk confirmed.

"We deal with people that sometimes have a couple of houses and something's happened and people were able to afford it and they can't anymore.

"Or we can deal with people who are on Newstart or JobKeeper payments...and are just struggling because of a reduction in income to maintain their debts and payments."

Mr Turk said Anglicare's financial counsellors could advocate to creditors on behalf of clients and build financial resilience.

"We look at a budget which is a snapshot of where their situation is and based on that we can have a conversation about what options might be available to them to improve their spending.

"We just encourage anyone whose got issues to come and come early because there's good evidence to show that the earlier someone seeks financial counselling the better the outcomes are for them."