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Donnerstag, 25. April 2013

Eurofound study on "Household debt advisory services in the European Union"



The recent Eurofound study on "Household debt advisory services in the European Union" shows that many EU citizens are struggling to service their mortgages or consumer credit, and to pay their rent and utility bills. In 2010, more than one in four persons reported that they felt at risk of becoming over-indebted, while 11.6% were in arrears with payments related to such debts or bills (up from 9.9% in 2007).
The study identifies successful debt counselling measures and ways to improve access to services and finds that the quality of debt advisory services can be enhanced by offering tailored approaches, leaving the household in control as much as possible and building relationships of trust between all the stakeholders involved.
Executive summary: en bg cs da de el es et fi fr hr hu it lt lv mk mt nl pl pt ro sk sl sv tr

Freitag, 19. April 2013

Empowering people to manage their finances - Humanitas Financial Home Administration Programme



Financial Home Administration is a programme carried out by Humanitas to provide support to people not being able to manage independently their financial and administrative work. This project represents a social innovation as it fills in a gap in the service provision by starting before the classic debt reliefservices foreseen in the Netherlands and concretely addressing a new need emerged in society as consequence of the economic crisis (and of the increasing necessity of making choices in a liberalized economy: pensions, insurances, utilities etc). The project aims at preventing social poverty and social exclusion. In addition, it contributes to the empowerment of users improving their skills and abilities as well as promoting their active inclusion and (re)integration in society.



Source: INNOSERV Social Platform on Innovative Social Services Newsletter 2, April 2013



Samstag, 13. April 2013

Eurostat: Living standards falling in most Member States



Living standards, as measured by the median equivalised disposable income, fell in 15 Member States in 2010 compared with a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation. In the vast majority of Member States the median income fell most for the unemployed and least for people in employment. Income decreased in the bottom quintile of the income distribution in most Member States. In 15 Member States, income inequality increased because income in the top quintile decreased less or increased more than in the bottom quintile. When looking at households’ material conditions, in 2011 around 10 % of the EU population reported that they could not afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day. This represents an increase of 1 percentage point (pp) compared with 2010. All figures are based on the latest EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) data collected in 2011. 


Mittwoch, 10. April 2013

Microfinance as a Tool of Active Ageing



The European Microfinance Network (EMN) was launched by its founding members (Adie - France, NEF - UK and evers&jung - Germany) in April 2003. The EMN was created as a Non Governmental Organisation ("Association loi 1901, under the French legislation) and was officially registered in Paris on May 23rd 2003. Since December 2012, EMN has legally transferred its activities from France to Belgium. New Publications are now available on EMN's website!

Please find here two new publications 12/2012:


Sonntag, 7. April 2013

EU Employment and Social Situation Quarterly Review – March 2013




This edition highlights the effects recent government spending cuts have had on the employment and social situation in a number of Member States. Fiscal tightening affected employment through both direct (public sector employment) and indirect (aggregate demand) channels. Changes to the tax and benefits systems and cuts in public sector wages have led to significant reductions in the level of real household incomes, putting a heavy strain on the living standards of low income households.