Although the total number of people who end up in debt counseling is decreasing, the number of young people with problematic debts is increasing.
Both Nibud and the Credit Registration Bureau (BKR) note that many young people are in a financially vulnerable situation. Information is given at schools to make young people aware of problematic debts.
doubling
Figures from the BKR from 2020 show that the number of young people with debts has doubled since 2018. According to Roy Spiertz of Kredietbank Limburg, it is often due to negligent behavior of young people. He also sees that young people often do not know how to do things differently.
Spiertz also sees that the corona period has led to an aggravation of the problem. He calls on young people who are in debt to sound the alarm in time. “That way you prevent worse.”
Education
30-year-old Sergio Staphorst is an experience expert and will tell his story to students at Zuyd Hogeschool in Sittard on Tuesday. Staphorst lived on a Wajong benefit due to a muscle disease and had a debt of 25,000 euros. He has now almost paid that debt. He has started training as a budget coach and provides information at schools.
Workshops
During the workshop, he pours a shopping bag full of mail over the table. This includes advertising brochures, but also mail from authorities or bailiffs. “This is how it went with me. Sometimes you open everything neatly and speak to bailiffs, but there are also periods when it all becomes too much and everything remains unopened,” says Sergio. Spiertz recognizes it. “Now it’s a shopper to show the students, but sometimes it’s six garbage bags full in practice.”
‘Confronting’
“Such a bag full of documents that is emptied here is very confronting,” says student Lisa Gerards. “You can hardly imagine that it has grown so over someone’s head.” And that is also the message that Staphorst and Spiertz give the students of Zuyd University of Applied Sciences: “If you wait too long before seeking help, the problems keep getting bigger. Debts don’t go away on their own, so seek help.”