The managing director of the Federal Working Group for Debt Counseling sees one reason for the lack of staff in what the association considers to be inadequate payment from many of the counseling center sponsors.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt/Main The need is great, but debt counseling centers also lack specialists. The result: many people with debt problems have to wait for an appointment with the advisors. “At the moment it usually takes several months until the first meeting, but we have also heard of waiting times of up to one and a half years,” said Ines Moers, Managing Director of the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Schuldnerberatung e. V. (BAG-SB) of the German Press Agency.
In acute emergencies, such as when the electricity needs to be turned off or there is a risk of losing your home, advice centers try to help with emergency advice while you are still waiting. Based on the experience of the BAG-SB, consumers are currently increasingly looking for help from advisors, also because of the high energy prices. Studies show that rising energy and living costs are hitting people with lower incomes particularly hard.
If there are long waiting times, the pressure on those affected increases, Moers reported. “We experience that people with debt problems go to private, fee-based advisors, some of whom also include dubious providers. In an emergency, money is also taken out of the pockets of those affected”.
According to the information, the number of vacancies has increased significantly at the approximately 1,400 advice centers nationwide. Specialists with additional training can hardly be found even on the association’s specialized job market.
Moers refers to data from the Federal Employment Agency, according to which around 13,600 vacancies for social workers were reported as of May 10th. Debt counseling is traditionally a field of social work. According to Moers, there is no precise data on how many positions in recognized advice centers are missing nationwide. The job title “debt counselor” is not protected in Germany.
Information service provider expects more private bankruptcies
Moers sees one reason for the lack of staff in the inadequate payment from the point of view of the association at many providers of the advice centers. This is mainly due to the performance agreements with the municipalities, which have remained unchanged for years, and which make it difficult for independent providers to implement wage increases. In terms of salary, things look better for church providers.
The problems could get worse. In view of the high inflation, the information service provider Crif expects considerable problems for low-income households and, as a result, up to 100,000 personal bankruptcies in the current year after 96,321 last year.
“Due to the further rising costs, a wave of debt is possible in Germany,” said Crif Managing Director Frank Schlein recently. “If the costs rise sharply, it will be difficult for people who have already been living at the subsistence level.” For many, the financial reserves were also used up after the Corona period.
An estimated six million people in Germany are over-indebted. One speaks of over-indebtedness when income and assets are no longer sufficient to pay off liabilities, even with a reduced standard of living.
According to their own statements, almost a third of the employees in Germany are reaching their financial limits because of the significantly higher prices. In a Yougov survey commissioned by Postbank, 21 percent of a good 1,000 employees answered that their salary was “rather not enough” to pay for ongoing living expenses.
8.5 percent said the money was “not enough at all”. In particular, respondents with a monthly net household income of less than 2,500 euros can hardly make ends meet: 43 percent in this group stated that they could not pay their current living expenses with their current salary.
More: Energy crisis exacerbates financial difficulties of consumers