Arnhem starts paying off first struggling households' debts

The municipality of Arnhem has started paying off the debts of residents living in the struggling district of Immerloo. The city has so far paid 200,000 euros in debts for ten households, alderman Mark Lauriks told NU.nl. He added that locals are very mistrustful of this experiment and it taking the municipality time and effort to convince them that it is not a trick or a scam.

Arnhem announced in the spring that it would pay off the debts of 60 struggling households. Municipal workers started visiting eligible families soon after. It has not been easy, Lauriks’ spokesperson told the newspaper. “People have a lot of distrust of the government. We are not allowed to come in the first time.”

The municipality has managed to build enough trust with 15 households that municipal workers are now allowed to visit regularly. They’ve mapped out the total debts of ten of these households.

“That turned out to be a lot of work,” the alderman said. The ten households together had 250 different debts amounting to 540,000 euros. That’s an average of 54,000 euros in debt per household.

The municipality has now paid off the first 80 debts, with a value of approximately 200,000 euros. Of this amount, 69,000 euros came from the purchase fund set up for this purpose. The creditors contributed the rest.

The fact that the experiment is taking longer than expected is partly due to the severity of these families' problems, Lauriks said. “We see that the need among families is sometimes so great that we have to tackle urgent problems first,” Lauriks said. He mentioned healthcare that has been postponed for years due to lack of money as an example.

In addition to paying off debts, the municipality is also offering families two years of guidance to help them keep their clean slate.