Staff? No, I don’t need that, it sounds through the phone’s speaker. “I already have a payment arrangement with the bailiff.” Anne Postma finally has someone on the phone, after encountering seven voicemails, the man holds off.
Postma (29), from the Amsterdam East Neighborhood Team, calls people with payment arrears to offer help. On the table in front of her is the telephone and a pink folder with files provided by health insurers, home rental companies and energy suppliers, among others. Postma’s job: listen carefully and don’t just give up.
“What payment arrangement have you agreed upon?” she asks the man. He must transfer the debt to his landlord, more than 5,000 euros, in one go, he says.
“That is a very high amount,” says Postma. “Have you thought about paying it in installments?”
The man would like to, but he doesn’t dare. Does the bailiff agree to this? Won’t he be evicted from his house? “Well, it’s not that far yet,” says Postma. “It is also a shame if you get into trouble with other fixed costs because you pay such a high amount at once.”
They agree that the man will come by soon. Then they list his income and expenses and come up with a feasible payment schedule.
Payment arrears
Those who have debts usually do not simply accept help. This man answered quickly, but often it takes more attempts: a letter, ringing the doorbell, a phone call, a card, ringing the doorbell again, another card. That doesn’t mean that people really don’t want help, says Postma. “Sometimes, on the tenth attempt at contact, someone appears to be very happy that you persevered when they still found it exciting. Then you hear: ‘I’ve seen all your cards, but I was so scared to contact you’.”
Three years ago, municipalities were given the legal obligation to offer help to citizens with payment arrears for their fixed costs. But municipalities are often not as decisive as Amsterdam, the national forerunner, according to a report from the National Ombudsman this Wednesday. The ten municipalities that the ombudsman investigated made an average of two to three attempts to reach these residents. Mainly by email, letter or telephone, and much less with home visits.
The differences between municipalities are large. Some municipalities only send letters. “That is really not possible,” says ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen in his office in The Hague. “At least check whether the letter has arrived and how these people are doing now.”
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Stack of unopened mail
Municipal letters often end up on top of the pile of unopened mail, Postma in Amsterdam sees. Just yesterday she saw a “packed mailbox” for someone who is behind on rent, energy bills and health insurance premiums. “We added our ticket with great difficulty.” Her attempt to call today also yielded no results. “I’m sorry,” comes the sound from the speaker. “But the person you are calling is not available.”
The Amsterdam neighborhood team sometimes makes extra efforts for people with a full mailbox. “Then we visit the GGD or a local police officer,” says Postma. “Sometimes they open the door, but usually not.”
The law does not prescribe how municipalities should approach their residents with emerging debts. But the intention of the law is clear, says ombudsman Van Zutphen. “You have to actually make contact. If you only send a letter, you have no idea whether it will work.”
His painful conclusion: if you have payment arrears, you must be lucky with the municipality where you live. In some municipalities there is a much greater chance that an incipient debt will grow to problematic proportions. Unacceptable, says Van Zutphen. “Some people don’t get the help they need.”
Amsterdam is a forerunner
Those who live in the capital are lucky. “Amsterdam has always been a forerunner,” says Jeroen van de Werken, accounts receivable management manager at insurer Achmea. Amsterdam was the first to start early detection in 2000, initially to offer help to tenants at risk of eviction. The drinking water company, energy companies and health insurers, among others, then joined. It is also one of the few municipalities that continues to evaluate their working methods by conducting research into how residents can best be approached.
As a creditor, Achmea sees “marginal effort” for early detection by most municipalities. “Of the thousands of signals that we pass on to municipalities, only a few percent lead to a suitable solution such as a payment arrangement,” says Van de Werken. “And it is not even clear whether this is thanks to the municipalities or through our own letters.”
In Vlissingen, two attempts are being made to reach residents with payment arrears. Isn’t that little? The municipality is in bad financial shape, but councilor Jeroen Portier (Poverty, GroenLinks) does not mention that as a reason. He thinks that his municipality is very active in this, he says on the phone. But especially before payment arrears arise. “When schools see a child with only some chips in the lunch box. Or if someone comes to the doctor with a headache and it turns out that there are also financial concerns. Then we will be referred very quickly to the neighborhood team.”
But as soon as Vlissingen receives signals about residents with payment arrears, the municipality only makes two attempts to reach them, usually by letter or telephone. The regional implementer of the Vlissingen early warning system, Orionis, is making more efforts for the two neighboring municipalities of Middelburg and Veere, a spokesperson said: four contact attempts and home visits for arrears above 500 euros. These municipalities make more budget available for this.
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‘One contact attempt is sometimes enough’
Why doesn’t Vlissingen do that? After his policy officer, who sits next to Portier, confirms the differences, the councilor starts to defend them. His municipality wants to look “broader” than “financial problems,” he says. “We are strongly committed to signaling even earlier. It may be that one contact attempt is enough for us.” He doesn’t know whether that is really the case. “We don’t have those figures ready.”
“Many municipalities are still searching,” says Carla van der Vlist, director of the volunteer organization SchuldHulpMaatje, which is active in 161 municipalities. “I often hear that they receive so many signals that they wonder: how do you pick them up properly.” She also sees big differences. But in the long term, she believes, municipalities will benefit from investing heavily in early detection. “If debts continue to rise, costs will become much higher.”
Every euro that Amsterdam invests in early detection will ultimately yield 2.22 euros for the municipality, as was evident from an evaluation of the capital’s approach in 2014. And society as a whole 2.46 euros. The largest items on which savings are made: social assistance benefits, because people without debts usually go to work more quickly. And places in social shelters, which are often needed after an eviction.
Drowning in debt
Municipalities must make enough money available for this, says ombudsman Van Zutphen. Not only for financial reasons, but also “to prevent people from drowning in debt.” But the government should also oblige municipalities to do this, he believes, by better recording the minimum requirements that early detection must meet. “There must be a lower limit that everyone can count on. Now it matters too much where you live.”
The ombudsman often draws this conclusion in the case of municipal policy. “Whether it concerns youth care, homelessness, the Social Support Act. In some municipalities, citizens cannot claim the minimum that is necessary.” The ombudsman expects the government to impose stricter requirements in all these areas.
Is that at odds with local democracy? No, says the ombudsman. Municipalities like to emphasize that they are not just an implementation desk of the government, but it is very normal, says Van Zutphen, that the cabinet gives orders to municipalities. “That includes frameworks. There may be local differences, but no one should fall through the cracks.”
For Postma, from the Amsterdam neighborhood team, early detection is about much more than payment arrears. “There is often so much more going on, and we try to help with everything.”
She recently even talked to a woman who was no longer in arrears. “She was a victim of domestic violence. And in our previous conversation she had mentioned that she is going through a divorce. Before our new appointment, I heard that she had paid off her arrears, but then I thought: I’m not going to cancel her calls, maybe there is more to it.”
And yes, there was more going on. “She had become isolated recently. So I gave her the website of Dappere Dames, an institution that provides resilience training and where women eat together.” That’s what Postma likes most about her work: “That people confide in me so much that they tell me more about their lives. And that I can help them with problems that would otherwise never have come to our attention.”
In this way, Postma can also prevent new problems. For example, with the man she just spoke to on the phone, who wanted to pay off thousands of euros in one go. “Then you can think: great, it will be solved. But you don’t know what the consequences are.” Maybe it’s wishful thinking and he can’t afford it at all. Maybe he stops paying other bills, or gets into debt with family or friends. “Then I think: it would be better if he came by.”
The municipality of Vlissingen will evaluate its poverty policy this year, says Alderman Portier, including early detection. “We want to know what the results are. If it turns out that more is needed, we can discuss it.” But maybe, he says, things are turning out well now. “Then we will continue on this path.”