Black Saturday victims say they feel left in the dark by law firm Maurice Blackburn after it confirmed payouts from the record $494 million class-action settlement would be delayed until next year.

Victorians affected by the 2009 disaster, which claimed the lives of 173 people, were supposed to receive compensation by July this year, but due to the complexity of the case may now have to wait until early 2017.

Strathewen man Denis Spooner, who lost wife Marilyn and son Damien in the fires, said the news was a huge blow to him and his partner, Suzi Kerr, a fellow bushfire survivor.

"It's really knocked me about. I said to Suzi, 'This is absolute crap'. We've had to fight for everything we've got. It's been going on for seven years."

Mr Spooner said he was told just last Monday by Maurice Blackburn that his compensation payments were "on track", and only learned of the delay while being interviewed by Neil Mitchell on 3AW on Friday following a report by The Australian.

"We knew nothing and had heard nothing about these delays whatsoever," said Ms Kerr.

The news comes just days before the event's seventh anniversary on February 7, with survivors still facing dire financial circumstances.

"There's a lot of desperate situations up there still," said Mr Spooner, "and this is seven years on.

"We've had to literally fight for everything we got in this community. This will really knock them about after news of this.

"The whole disaster shouldn't have happened in the first place. That's what makes it so sad."

Maurice Blackburn successfully ran Australia's largest class-action lawsuit against energy provider AusNet Services (formerly SP AusNet), utility contractor UAM and the state government.

In December 2014, a settlement of $494 million was reached for the Kilmore East-Kinglake fire, while the Murrindindi-Marysville fire was settled for $300 million in May 2015.

In a statement, Maurice Blackburn said they knew better than anyone the importance of getting payments to survivors and were working as quickly as possible.

"This is by hundreds of millions of dollars the largest class-action compensation recovery for people in Australian history, and by its very nature it's also the largest, most complex and most important settlement distribution, so getting it right for bushfire survivors is our number one priority," a spokesman said.

"No one understands more than we do the importance of getting this done properly and as quickly as possible for survivors – we've been fighting for them every day for years now and we will continue working as hard as we can in their interests."

Reports of the delay first surfaced last week after letters were sent by Maurice Blackburn to a small number of survivors informing them of the delay.

Mr Spooner said a Maurice Blackburn representative told him they hadn't intended to send out the letters for another two to three weeks until after the anniversary.

"It's pretty lousy," he said in response to the law firm's statement. "All the way through the whole process they treated us like mushrooms and kept us in the dark."

Members of community are hoping to meet with Maurice Blackburn next week where they will lobby for partial hardships payments.

"I was talking to lady in Kinglake and she said you virtually have to have the bank knocking on your door threatening foreclosure to be successful," Mr Spooner said.

"They keep saying 'We know how you feel', and we keep saying 'No you don't'."