Managing household debts: Social service provision in the EU - Workshop report

Overall, household debt levels have risen sharply over the past decades in EU Member States. While certain levels of household debts can be beneficial, they can become problematic especially with a sudden, unexpected decrease of incomes or increase of expenditures. The current financial crisis caused unemployment levels to rise, with the lagged impact still to be felt. This combination of factors lead to increased over-indebtedness among households. The participants in the workshop that took place in June 2010 discussed preventive and alleviative measures and the role of social services in this matter. They mapped current and planned activities of the different organisations, identified needs for further research, and discussed a potential future role for Eurofound. A working paper is available.