Budget advice points exist throughout France and offer anyone the opportunity to find support in their financial management.
In Nantes, three professionals offer hotlines once a month, free of charge and without an appointment.
Gasoline prices on the rise, electricity bill soaring, shopping basket following the same trend... While purchasing power is one of the major concerns of the French at the moment, who to turn to when you can't make ends meet anymore?
For several years, a state system has enabled anyone, not necessarily followed by social services, to find advice, free of charge and without an appointment.
In Nantes, these budget advice points (or PCB), which still seem confidential, are hosted in certain neighborhood centers and offer hotlines once a month, like this Thursday in Bellevue (in the morning) and at La Bottière (after -midday).
In a small room, a social worker from the CCAS and two associative actors receive the public.
Alice, banking mediator at the association Acting for Banking Integration (Apib), explains that if some households have difficulty managing their money, it is primarily because of a lack of knowledge of the system.
“Our goal is not to solve their problems, but to make them understand how it works, how they got there, explains the young woman.
For some, you have to start from scratch, explain what an overdraft is, for example.
Others come after an account has been closed, we help them negotiate to reopen it.
Many lack a global vision of all charges and do not provide the margin for exceptional expenses, even when they can.
It's important to talk about savings,
even if it's 5% per month.
»
"Freeing up budget"
It must be said that at the moment, these unforeseen events are falling from all sides.
The regulations of monthly energy bills can, for example, be very heavy.
Ditto for rents, whose charges sometimes explode.
Sometimes an accident in life such as a separation or the loss of a job upsets an already precarious balance.
"People who were already ric-rac come for the first time to ask for help, because they can no longer keep up," we observe here.
Once the situation has been assessed, the role of the social and family economy adviser at the Nantes CCAS, Maéva Jubault, is to provide a first level of response by providing information on the various devices, tips, or unsolicited social assistance.
"If they wish, then we dig again",
To "clear the budget", it is necessary for example to track down too expensive telephone plans, subscriptions to useless magazines, or mutual insurance formulas to be reworked.
"Some people get caught up in complicated commercial situations", note the actors, for whom the key is to have a monitoring tool, whether it's a notebook and a pen, an envelope system (where you slip tickets for each expense item) or a mobile app.
However, “the spiral that leads to over-indebtedness” is sometimes already too engaged.
“Some unfortunately wait until the last minute and come to see us after a garnishment of wages, for example, regrets the budgetary and financial mediator of the Cresus association.
There, we accompany to compile the file, to learn about the rights,
on what to do when the bailiff calls.
But we really try to do everything not to come to that.
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Social
purchasing power
Nantes
Pays de la Loire
Budget