Photo: ANP
"Like mopping with the tap running": Máxima wants more people out of debt
Queen Máxima celebrated the tenth anniversary of Schuldenlab070 in The Hague. She believes shame and distrust stop many from getting help, and that people must save and build buffers to avoid falling into debt.
Queen Máxima on Wednesday helped celebrate the tenth anniversary of Schuldenlab070 in The Hague. The lab was the first place where the city council, businesses and voluntary organisations worked together to help people out of debt. More than 300 guests from the public sector, business, civil society and research gathered at Museon-Omniversum in The Hague.
"There are still too many households in the Netherlands with problematic debts," the Queen said. "We need to help many more people out of debt, and to achieve that we have to try more and work together better."
Shame and distrust
The Queen pointed to shame and distrust as major obstacles to reaching people struggling with debt. "To reach these people, we really have to find an unorthodox way to get to them," she said. It is important to listen, and to reach people literally at their front door, she said.
She also stressed the importance of preventing people from getting into financial trouble in the first place. "We have to save and build up buffers," she said. Otherwise it is like mopping the floor with the tap still running. She mentioned inflation, worries about the climate and gambling, which she called a big problem among young people. "We have to talk about these issues. By working together we can do much more."
From The Hague to the whole country
Schuldenlab070 was set up in 2016. Two years later, in 2018, the Queen visited Jongeren Perspectief Fonds, a fund that helps young people out of debt and one of the methods the lab had developed. She was impressed, and asked why what worked in The Hague could not also be tried in other municipalities. Partly on her initiative, SchuldenlabNL was set up the same year to spread the methods nationwide. In 2022 she became its honorary chair.
Last autumn SchuldenlabNL merged with a network of employers working for the financial health of their staff, and took the name Stichting Financieel Gezond Nederland. The Queen is honorary chair there too. The aim is to halve the number of financially vulnerable households by 2030.
The anniversary ended with the partners signing three pledges. They will use technology to help more people, work for financially healthy neighbourhoods, and make sure more people receive the help municipalities offer but many do not use.
