WORKING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE WITH A FINANCIAL BUDDY

In Amsterdam, poverty is higher than in the rest of the Netherlands [CBS]. People often wait too long before sounding the alarm. Marisca Jones and Suzanne Löwik know all about that. Together they run De Regenboog's finance project, which consists of two parts: the Grip op je Geld financial consultation hours, where people with money questions can walk in without an appointment, and the financial buddies, who guide people with money worries for a year on a voluntary basis. What do you need to have in house as a financial buddy?

Suzanne emphasizes that being a financial buddy means something other than knowing everything about money. Marisca nods: "We want to dispel the misconception that you have to be some kind of accountant to assist people in debt. We are looking for people who like structure and setting concrete goals. People who have the patience to work through the mail together and chart the debts."

At the same time we clear up another misunderstanding, that of: 'it's not so bad about poverty in the Netherlands, is it?' Marisca: "That depends on how you define 'poverty'. Not so long ago, the definition was changed. Due to a new calculation, poverty in the Netherlands suddenly decreased." Suzanne: "I would say: go look in Southeast, New West and at the food banks where the lines have only gotten longer. At De Regenboog we also see an increase in applications. There are a lot of working people among them; self-employed people who can no longer afford the groceries."

Not 'defaulters,' but people who can't make ends meet

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Another persistent myth is that poverty would be your own fault. Suzanne: "People in poverty are not lax or lazy or stupid. Take the benefits. You give something wrong once and have to pay back everything. Suddenly you have debts. Those debts are increased by collection costs. Before you know it, you're sitting on five thousand euros in debt." Marisca: "We don't refer to people in debt as 'defaulters,' we prefer to call them: people who can't make ends meet." Suzanne: "As if people deliberately cut corners. At least those are not the people we encounter. We do see people who raise the alarm far too late due to shame." Marisca: "Often people only seek help after six to eight years. Then they have built up a debt of an average of forty thousand euros." Suzanne: "That's why I hope that stigma on poverty disappears. Then hopefully people will raise the alarm sooner."

A volunteer has more leeway than a debt relief worker

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Marisca: "People get stressed out and lose track of things. For these people there is debt assistance, but the wry thing is: they ask quite a lot. You have to be very self-reliant. The debt relief worker says: map out your finances, make sure your budget picture is correct, provide a recent overview of all your debts, make sure you have applied for all benefits. Then I think: if they could do all this, they probably wouldn't have any debt at all." And that's where De Regenboog volunteers come in. Suzanne: "A debt relief worker has an average caseload of a hundred clients. We work with buddies, each of whom we pair up with a participant. You work together for a year. Within that year, as a participant, you work toward independence." Marisca: "Of course, all De Regenboog volunteers first receive basic training. In addition, we offer a separate training for financial buddies in which you learn what a debt relief project entails and the best steps to follow for organizing administration." Suzanne: "And we teach our volunteers what debt does to a person. You get a lot of stress from that. Poverty does something to your brain. During the training we want to increase understanding of that."

Walk-in consultations Grip op je Geld

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The other project component for people with money worries is called Grip op je Geld (Grip on Your Money) and helps Amsterdam residents with administrative questions. Suzanne: "Within Grip op je Geld we work together with the neighborhood teams, MEE and volunteers from Humanitas." At fixed locations in the city, there are financial walk-in consultations at fixed times where people can come with clear questions. Think: 'I've had a high energy bill, but I don't understand it.' 'Do I qualify for a waiver?' 'Can I apply for this allowance?'

For more info on Grip on Your Money ...

Not keeping up with the current digital age

Marisca: "In both the walk-in consultations and the buddy programs, we see an overlap in digitization questions. People can no longer keep up with the current digital age. We can help with that too. For this, people can turn to the De Regenboog project Digimaatje."

For more info on the Digimaatje project ...