The European Commission is preparing a study on the “Provision of actions to extend the availability and improve the quality of debt advice services for European households”.
The research aims to:
- Support the European Commission in addressing more efficiently consumer over-indebtedness linked to credit activities;
- Facilitate the availability of debt advice;
- Help spreading the awareness of best practices and address funding and capacity building programmes.
As part of the process, business consultancy VVA and the Center for European Policy Studies are conducting a survey to collect information on the current debt advice services offered in EU Member States, the costs borne by advisory services as well as potential (societal) benefits of providing advice and the degree to which demands are met.
This will enable identifying the potential resources that are needed to improve the availability of debt advice services for households. It will also aim at identifying potential best practices and recommendations that will feed to a series of training events in Member States, allowing them to learn from each other with regards to implementing effective debt advice.
Eurodiaconia examines closely the factors enabling extreme poverty and the unavailability of quality debt counselling could potentially play a role in that process. Lack of reliable financial advisory services is one of the reasons for over-indebtedness across the EU, further aggravating the already precarious situation of low-income families and other vulnerable groups.
If you wish to participate, please complete the survey.
To learn more about our work on eradicating extreme poverty, please visit out thematic page.