News item | 11-24-2022 | 08:50
In the coming years, the government will structurally allocate 120 million euros to tackle money worries, poverty and debts. The money goes to, among other things, municipalities so that they can offer more people debt assistance, financial education to prevent money worries and to social organizations that are committed to reducing child poverty. This is written by Minister Schouten (Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions) to the House of Representatives.
One of the spearheads of the multi-year approach is lowering the threshold for debt assistance and shortening debt assistance processes. Money worries now often take a long time and debts run high before people sound the alarm and get help. Schouten wants to significantly reduce the duration of debt relief programs during this government’s term of office and more than double the number of households receiving debt relief.
Remediation credits
The minister wants to achieve a faster repayment of debts, partly through the use of restructuring credits. In this case, the municipality takes over the debts of creditors against a partial cancellation of the debt. Households then only pay off with one creditor, namely the municipality or the credit bank. This provides peace of mind and shortens the duration of the debt assistance. Last year, the government set up a Guarantee Fund that covers the risk for municipalities in the case of remediation credits.
As a temporary crisis measure, the government has decided to also allow these loans to be granted from 1 December 2022 to households that can no longer (fully) repay their debts due to the rise in (energy) prices or who have no or insufficient repayment capacity to agree on a debt settlement. deal with creditors. In this way, municipalities can take individual circumstances into account and allow the debt settlement to move in line with someone’s payment options.
Tackling child poverty
The government has the ambition to halve the number of children in poverty in 2025 compared to 2015. In addition to income measures, such as a higher minimum wage and more child-related budget, the government is focusing on better financial education. It wants to ensure that all children and young people receive basic financial knowledge through school, but also beyond, so that money worries and poverty are prevented in the long term. There will also be traineeships and work placements for children and young people in poverty that will enable them to strengthen their skills and combat inequality of opportunity.
Limit the consequences of the energy crisis
In addition to the structural resources for tackling money worries, poverty and debts, an additional 150 million euros is available for the period 2023-2024 to limit the consequences of the energy crisis for households as much as possible. The government wants to use these resources for, among other things, the expected extra effort that will be required in the field of early identification of debts and for the expected extra demand from households on the special assistance from the municipality.
Action plan money worries poverty and debtsThis summer, the government presented an action plan on money worries, poverty and debts with some forty measures that should lead to a halving of the number of children growing up in poverty in 2015 (compared to 2015), a halving of the number of people in poverty in 2030 (compared to 2015) and a halving of the number of people with problematic debts by 2030. In her letter to the House of Representatives, Minister Schouten outlines how the chosen measures contribute to these objectives, when they will be implemented and what resources the government will deploy for this purpose.