The BBC recently reported a 40% increase in the number of prescriptions being prescribed for anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac over the past four years, with GPs and charities saying they were being contacted increasingly by people struggling with job worries and the guilt of debt. Money woes 'linked to rise in depression'.
In my experience the majority of consumers who end up in financial difficulty have previously been able to meet their commitments until a trigger such as unemployment, a breakdown in a relationship or illness occurs.
For some it is just too much to recover from and they end up being plagued by debt collectors who harass them into paying monies they do not have. They then become ill, depressed and can turn to alcohol, gambling or even crime. Their debt problems can also impact on their relationships, their friends and their work. What support do we offer these people? Not a lot. The stigma of unmanageable debt is rife within our society.
Until recently we used to advertise bankrupts’ names in the local papers but thankfully, from April last year, this stopped. This change in policy was not just taken to help protect bankrupts but instead was a cost cutting exercise, saving the cost of placing adverts in the papers!
We still put the names, occupations and home addresses of insolvents (those consumers going bankrupt, proposing Individual Voluntary Arrangements, IVAs, or debt relief orders, DROs) on a public register and then bar them from having bank accounts and future credit. What further compounds the matter is that we are fast moving towards a cashless society and these people need bank accounts and access to plastic to function.
All this makes it harder for those who have been through financial difficulties as they can’t pay by direct debit, receive wages electronically or use the internet for purchases if they don’t have a debit card.
The banking industry isn’t helping matters either. Only 2 out of 17 banks seem prepared to offer bankrupts a bank account and they also find credit facilities difficult to come by or denied. It’s no wonder then that people find it hard to get back on their feet and get depressed!
Are we sowing the seeds of unrest by making these people feel like outcasts in society? Isn’t it about time we started to support and help them manage and rebuild their lives instead of ostracising them?
