€30 million gov't fund to help people with problematic debts: Report

On Budget Day, the government will present  plan for a 30 million euros debt buying fund with which it aims to help Netherlands residents with problematic debts, sources around the negotiations for the 2021 budget said to newspaper Trouw.

The idea is that this fund will be used to buy up the debts of people in trouble. Reasonable agreements will be made on payment terms and interest, so that families in trouble can get some breathing room and not sink further into financial, physical and psychological problems. Exactly what this fund will look like, will be worked out in the autumn. The plan is to start hepling people early next year.

Over the summer, ChristenUnie parliamentarian Eppo Bruins got majority support for his request that the government investigate whether such a fund can be considered an investment that contributes to the long-term economic growth of the Netherlands. This was an extension to the plan ChristenUnie and opposition party PvdA presented last year for the government buying up problematic debts.

The parties pointed out that people with bad debts have all kinds of problems that lead to social costs. And in addition to helping these people out of a hopeless situation, the fund can also help in the fight against dodgy debt collectors, they said.