Debt driving families to the depths of despair

Date Published: 03-Feb-2011

BY JUDY MURPHY

The problem of debt is driving many people in Galway to contemplate suicide according to a spokesperson for the community based Money Advice and Budgeting Services.

Marie McLernon of South Galway MABS (which covers the southern area of the county, as well as Connemara, the offshore islands and Galway City) says that the group is “helping to save a life a day”, as more and more people grapple with debts that range from mortgages to legal fees to sub-prime loans.

Money advisers in South Galway dealt with 12 new clients in just one day last week.

“Sometimes people are so depressed that the first thing you’d ask them is if they are suicidal and if they are, you refer them to a doctor,” she says.

The State-funded service was originally set up in 1992 to help people on social welfare payments, who were having problems meeting debt.

Now, however, says Ms McLernon, many people on low wages are often worse off than people on social welfare, as social welfare recipients have supplementary incomes such as rent relief and fuel allowances.

“The client coming in today is much more competent; many will have been in business,” observes Marie. “But it can be more difficult for people who are well off when they get into debt.”

For many, being unable to pay off their loans is a cause of despair. “The devastation and hopelessness some people feel is awful and we help give them back hope.”

MABS can help people to maximise their income by seeking Social Welfare and other benefits that they may not be aware they are entitled to.

“Our mantra is apply and appeal,” she says of the process. And she stresses that self-employed people are also entitled to assistance through job seekers’ allowance.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.