News item | 25-01-2022 | 12:15
Her Majesty Queen Máxima spoke at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in The Hague on Tuesday 25 January with the Minister for Poverty Policy, Participation and Pensions, Carola Schouten, about tackling problematic debts. The chairman of Stichting SchuldenlabNL, Gerrit Zalm, and the director, Sadik Harchaoui, were also present. SchuldenlabNL works together with public and private parties on, among other things, the scaling up of effective debt relief methods for vulnerable groups to make them debt free.
In the past government term, a great deal was invested in a comprehensive approach to problem debt. In addition, there has been more national attention and understanding of debt problems. Minister Schouten indicated that the new cabinet will continue with full force on the line of a broad approach to poverty and debt. Spearheads in this regard include prevention through financial education, tackling low literacy and early identification and tackling of financial problems. Efforts are also being made to accelerate and shorten debt relief processes and people are given greater opportunities to pay off their debts faster and more effectively. Figures from Statistics Netherlands for 2020 show that about one in five households (1.4 million) has money worries. More than 600,000 of these households have problematic debts.
Minister Carola Schouten: “The figures show that the debt problem in the Netherlands is as great as ever. We can only tackle it effectively together. I am therefore incredibly happy with the initiatives of SchuldenlabNL. They ensure that people find help faster and enable municipalities to help more people with financial concerns. The commitment and involvement of Queen Máxima, from today as honorary chairperson of SchuldenlabNL, is extremely valuable in this regard.”
Honorary President
During the conversation, Minister Schouten mentioned that Queen Máxima had become honorary president of SchuldenlabNL. Since its foundation in 2018, Queen Máxima has worked with the foundation to make people debt free. In the autumn of 2020, for example, she received representatives from the public and private sector at Noordeinde Palace for the pact ‘Towards a debt-free Netherlands’ and in November last year she was present at the launch of the regional Debt LabMVS (Maassluis, Vlaardingen, Schiedam). The minister said he was looking forward to further cooperation in the future.
The chairman of SchuldenlabNL presented the results of the past three years. The scaling up of effective debt relief methods is progressing well through the collaboration with partner organizations and the network is continuously being expanded. In the coming year, even more efforts will be made to connect municipalities to the debt relief methods. Municipalities are the first point of contact for many people with debts. Events for the coming six months include a conference with VNO/NCW on the subject of financial fitness and assistance to employees with financial problems. A meeting will be organized in June to share the results of the scaling up of debt relief methods, as agreed in the 2020 pact.