Extra Mabs staff welcomed

The decision to allocate extra staff to help people who are struggling with personal debts has been welcomed, but the Government has been urged to do more to assist those trying to cope with money problems.

Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin today admitted the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) is under pressure after it emerged that the number of households receiving emergency welfare to help them meet mortgage payments has almost doubled over the past six months.

The Government confirmed today that it is to hire five additional full-time and 14 part-time advisers for Mabs offices around the State to help deal with a surge in demand from people trying to repay debts.

In the first half of this year, almost 10,000 new clients were seen by Mabs staff, with a further 1,600 seeking assistance about budgeting and money management from local services, according to official figures.

The average debt owed by new clients when they first came to the service was in the region of €15,000.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Irelandearlier today, Ms Hanafin admitted that the service was struggling to cope.

"What is striking about it is the range of debt that people have,” said Ms Hanafin.

“In recent years, what people have done is they have run up a debt with their mortgage and another one on a personal loan, and then there's the first credit card and the second credit card, and then there's the credit union, and people have debts all over the place that need to be managed and controlled,” she added.

The Irish Timesreported today that new figures from the Department of Social and Family Affairs show that there were almost 14,000 people in receipt of the mortgage interest supplement at the end of July. This compares with 8,000 at the end of last year, and 4,000 at the end of 2007.

The Legal rights organisation Flac today welcomed the appointment of additional staff at Mabs offices. However, it warned that a more co-ordinated approach across Government departments is needed.

“The Government must provide comprehensive protection for those who are over-indebted. This requires more co-operation between departments and agencies to offer a full range of support to people who are in desperate straits,” said Flac director general Noeline Blackwell.

The organisation has recorded a four-fold increase in debt-related calls to its telephone information and referral line and a doubling of visits to its legal advice centres around the country on debt issues.