NEW ECRC MEMBER – DECO, the Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection has joined the ECRC network and sent us a letter explaining their activities in Portugal concerning overindebtedness and its impact on consumers and families in Portugal. We document parts of the letter received from DECO's secretary general Mr Jorge Morgado below in order to encourage other organisations to do likewise and thus create transnational cooperation. Extracts from the DECO letter: "Contrary to what happened in other Europeans countries, in which the credit development was slow and occurred during different phases of the economic cycle, in Portugal it flourished rapidly during a phase of economic growth in which real income increased coupled with a decrease in unemployment and interest rates, the liberalization of the financial markets and the subsequent increase in competition between institutions. The easy access to credit automatically increased the number of debtors who made calculation errors, and who hastily voluntarily or involuntarily made incorrect decisions or those faced some sort of misfortune in their lives(in the form of unemployment, illness, divorce ....). Moreover we found that there is no legal mechanism or structure in place to assist over-indebted consumers. As a result, in 2000 DECO - The Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection, created a project aimed at assisting over-indebted consumers. Seven (7) Cabinets of Over-indebtedness were set up from the north to the south of the country (Viana do Castelo, Porto, Coimbra, Santarem, Lisboa, Evora and Faro). It is important to underline that these Cabinets of Over-indebtedness are the only structure that exists in Portugal, which assists over-indebted consumers. From the start, this project was duly recognized by the Portuguese State via the Consumers Institute. These Cabinets receive consumers seeking assistance, and analyse and evaluate their claims. Moreover in order to assist consumers, they must act in good faith even when faced with the impossibility repaying their debts, or where their situation is as a result of acts not intended to harm the rights of creditors or when their situation is as a result of a serious or prolonged illness or accident, or the result of an unexpected alteration in the consumers employment status or that of his/her spouse. Firstly, we assist consumers to elaborate and manage their budget in such a manner so that they are aware of their income and expenses and at the same time weight up the importance of each expense in their budget. Secondly, credit institutions are contacted by DECO in order to find a reasonable solution that would allow consumers to repay their respective debts accordingly. DECO and the Observatory of Over-indebtedness, from the Centre for Social Studies - CES from the Economics Faculty of the University of Coimbra celebrated a protocol with the objective of developing a study and investigation into the scientific and educational fields, particularly with regard to issues of credit, over-indebtedness and the over-indebtedness of consumers. This collaboration permits the Observatory of Overindebtedness to have access to the statistics on over-indebted consumers who seek assistance from DECO (once again we reiterate the fact that DECO is the only entity in Portugal that offers support to over-indebted consumers). In 2005, this collaboration resulted in an investigation concerning "Unemployment and Over-indebtedness of consumers: The contours of a dangerous relationship - Project on Unemployment and the Over-indebtedness of families". ... We would like to formally express our interest in participating in your initiatives and particularly to integrate the network, which you intend creating, as we consider this partnership to be enriching for DECO, and simultaneously we will be able to share our experiences with other entities about the work carried out in Portugal. Therefore, we would like to express our interest and availability to work together and develop joint initiatives which we consider to be fundamental, despite our budgetary restrictions.” ---------------------------- Also added is a link to a report by the Debt Observatory of Coimbra (in Portuguese) that studies the interconnection between unemployment and household bankruptcy in Portugal. ID: 39182 Autor(en): iff Erscheinungsdatum: 02.12.06     URL(s): Link to Household Overindebtedness Study (2003, in Portuguese)

World Partner       EU-Partner

Erzeugt: 04.12.06. Letzte Änderung: 04.12.06.
Information zum Urheberrecht der angezeigten Inhalte kann beim Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen erfragt werden. Aus fehlenden Angaben kann kein Recht zur freien Nutzung der Inhalte abgeleitet werden.