Bailiffs want better protection for debtors

Debt collection agencies are to ask the government to introduce better protection for people with debts on Wednesday, with the publication of a new report.


The bailiffs say debtors increasingly end up with less than the minimum wage to live on because the rules around debt collection are too complicated. There is also little control on how creditors collect their debts.
According to Nadja Jungmann of Utrecht College, which carried out research for the bailiffs, one in ten households has problems with debt, says the Volkskrant.
Property
‘Creditors will do anything to get back as much of their money as possible, including seizing property,’ she said.
The report says that people in debt are at the mercy of a tangle of rules and the various powers that creditors have.
Health insurers, landlords and childcare centres can ask the tax authorities to withhold benefits. Water authorities and councils can take money owed directly from bank accounts.
And because creditors are not aware of what others are doing, the debtor can end up under the minimum wage, says the report.

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