Mabs case study: ‘The weight has lifted and I can see a little bit clearer’

A visit from a debt collector brought Natasha’s debt problems into sharp focus.

“I nearly died,” Natasha recalls of the day she got the knock on the door. But, while the experience gave her a fright, it also convinced her to do something.

Natasha, in her late 30s, first ran into financial problems in her youth. She left school at 16, but finding work was never a problem. Neither was borrowing money. “I was living beyond my means, but not knowing it.”She borrowed about €10,000 to buy a car and topped up her wages with regular loans from the credit union to cover holidays.

While steady work meant she could manage her debt, the birth of her eldest child some 10 years ago made it difficult to work, given the cost of childcare.

With little support from the father, Natasha found it a difficult adjustment. “That’s when the debts started hitting me.”

Rent allowance of €950 and rent of €1,200 left her with a shortfall each month. Then her creditors started pushing for repayment.

“It was very stressful when the letters were coming in,” she says. “I didn’t want to open them, I didn’t want to know, but it made my problems worse.”

Emotionally it was also difficult. “I found myself very bogged down by everything . . . you’re in the tunnel. You can’t see the light at the end . . . you’re living in darkness, trying to survive on what you have.”

After the shock of the debt collector visit, Natasha made her way to Mabs. “I thought I’d give them a ring, what harm can it do?”

She feared being judged, but found the service “very understanding”.

Natasha was able to restructure her repayments and work part time. But after a second child, that was a problem because the creche hours were insufficient. “All I ever wanted to do was get a job and get out of that situation.”

The introduction of insolvency options, such as debt relief notice in 2013, offered relief. Natasha was able to get her debts of about €17,000 written off.

It was a feeling of “absolute relief”, she says. “The weight has lifted and I can see a little bit clearer.”