In the Corona crisis year 2020, 588,000 people turned to the debtor and insolvency advice centers because of financial problems.
That was one percent more than a year earlier.
At that time, 582,000 private individuals had contacted the advice centers, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday.
The Wiesbaden authority explained whether the small increase is due to the corona pandemic.
Christoph Schäfer
Responsible editor for economics and finance online.
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Many of the over-indebted people who turned to the advice centers were unemployed (43.4 percent).
The value is many times higher than the average in Germany.
Even in the crisis year 2020, the unemployment rate of the Federal Employment Agency was only 5.9 percent.
However, the only reason why it did not jump significantly higher was that millions of people were sent on short-time work, which is not considered unemployment.
Around every third person who turned to the advice center was an employee (35.3 percent), and every fifth person (20.3 percent) was “otherwise not gainfully employed”, for example retired.
Just 1.1 percent of those seeking help were self-employed (1.1 percent).
On average almost 30,000 euros in debt
For decades, those affected have cited the same reasons as the main trigger for their over-indebtedness.
The percentages fluctuate only slightly.
In 2020, the most important reasons were unemployment (19.7 percent), followed by illness, addiction or accident (16.5 percent).
Third place was “uneconomical housekeeping” with 14.5 percent, followed by divorce, separation or the death of the partner (12 percent).
Long-term low income (9.6 percent) and failed self-employment (8.2 percent) also play a noteworthy role.
In practice, one problem often follows another.
For example, those who drink far too much alcohol usually have problems in their marriage and at work sooner or later.
The average liabilities of overindebted people amounted to 29,230 euros.
Those in employment had significantly higher liabilities (37,000 euros) than the unemployed (21,000 euros).
However, over-indebted people with a job had a higher net income than the unemployed, with which they could theoretically pay off their debts in the long term.
Overall, however, the arrears of the over-indebted were dramatically high.
Those with jobs would have to use their monthly net income 26 times exclusively to repay debt; for the unemployed, this factor, the so-called over-indebtedness intensity, was 23.
Since rent, food and clothing also have to be paid from the net income and interest is also incurred on the debts, it is completely impossible for those affected to actually repay their debts within 26 or 23 months. In fact, it is completely undisputed among experts that people with such a high level of over-indebtedness have no chance of getting rid of their liabilities without personal bankruptcy.
The results of the over-indebtedness statistics are based on the information from 593 of the approximately 1430 debtor and insolvency advice centers in Germany. These provided anonymized data from around 143,000 advised people. Participation in the statistics is voluntary for both the advice centers and those seeking advice; there is no obligation to provide information. The reported data was therefore then extrapolated to all advised persons.