Arnhem’s main shopping district. Some Dutch families in the city will have all their debts cancelled, and those with children will be prioritised.Arnhem’s main shopping district. Some Dutch families in the city will have all their debts cancelled, and those with children will be prioritised.Earlier this month, municipal officials began knocking on doors in the Immerloo II district, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the Netherlands, offering to pay off problem debts.
In the Netherlands, councils are responsible for helping indebted families. But the current model isn’t working, Lauriks argued: “We have a system in place, but it doesn’t work for the people that need it most. And the entire system costs us billions and billions more than the initial debt. Utrecht was reported in 2023 by Dutch media to have halved the number of residents in debt to 12,000, after it took over the finances of the city’s poorest households.
Debt has long been seen as “a failing, something immoral. It’s got all these connotations of crime, immorality, of not being able to fulfil your end of the bargain,” Robert Vonk, professor of the history of social security at Utrecht university, said in an interview. “If you are in debt, you can get assistance … but this help has always had the implicit message that you have done something wrong and you need to atone for it.