The overall aim of the evaluation report of debt counseling by the “Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment” (STAR) is to show how increasingly important debt counseling is. The evaluation shows that debt counselling is crucial in helping citizens manage their debt, and as a result they can experience more time for family, job and education. The evaluation shows positive results in reducing citizens’ debt.

Furthermore, the evaluation illustrates that the participating citizens thrive more and personally experience extra time for other things in life when they know how to handle their budget and debt. In summary, the participating projects have:

 – Provided debt counseling to 2,616 citizens of the weakest target groups on public support. In addition, they have provided advice to an unknown number of anonymous citizens.

 – On average debt advice reduced the participants’ debt by 3.680 EUR.

 – Contributed to the development of hypotheses and to the outlining of an intervention model.

The intervention model contains four core elements, which include that citizens receive general guidance on loans and interest rates, have their personal debts and consumption habits covered, have a budget set and receive help and guidance in dealing with creditors.

The effort model also describes important elements in the organization of the effort, e.g. that the debt counselors should possess both financial, social and employment competence, and that the framework of counseling should take into account that debt is perceived as a taboo subject.

Read the full report here (In Danish): https://star.dk/media/14145/evaluering-af-gaeldsraadgivning-til-borgere-paa-offentlig-forsoergelse-002.pdf