Debt counseling center

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Logo SFZ

The research and documentation center for consumer insolvency and debt counseling supports the work of the consumer insolvency counseling centers in Rhineland-Palatinate through specialist advice, further training offers and contributions to the conceptual and structural development of debtor and insolvency counseling. Their core tasks also include advisory methodological, legal and media-technical advice to the advice centers.

The debt counseling center (SFZ) is affiliated to the social sciences, media and sport as well as law and economics departments at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz .

Emergence

The debt counseling center was set up in June 1999 as a result of the introduction of the insolvency regulation and the procedure for consumer insolvencies laid down therein .

The State Office for Social Affairs, Youth and Supply and the Ministry for Labor, Social Affairs, Family and Health are developing the idea of ​​a debt counseling center for Rhineland-Palatinate (SFZ) to support the counseling centers on the basis of a rough concept developed by the Institute for Financial Services Hamburg (IFF) Implementation of consumer bankruptcy proceedings. The aim was seen to be that the debt counseling center, as the central point of contact and competence center for the state's debt counseling centers, should make important contributions to the development of debt counseling, the implementation of the insolvency order, the networking of the various actors and independent research in the field.

Work goals

On the basis of a targeted optimization of debt counseling and simultaneous support in the implementation of the insolvency code, the following goals are derived:

  • Support of the debt counseling centers in Rhineland-Palatinate recognized according to Section 305 of the Insolvency Code (InsO)
  • Further development of the consulting methodology
  • Information service and public relations
  • Coordination of actors and offers
  • Support from sponsors, administration and politics
  • Accompanying research
  • Reduction of the implementation costs of the InsO

Work content

The debt counseling center is actively involved in the debt counseling work structure, which is comparatively strongly developed in Rhineland-Palatinate , and is often involved in a leading position, in particular through its participation in the "Working Group Debt Counseling Rhineland-Palatinate", in which, together with the two associations of the advisory practice LIGA of welfare and state working group Debt counseling in Rhineland-Palatinate , the responsible state ministry and the state office, all fundamental issues of debt counseling in Rhineland-Palatinate are discussed.

Through the practice forums for insolvency advisors, which are held twice a year at currently three locations in Rhineland-Palatinate, the debt counseling center is also involved in the direct exchange between the advisors and in developing their skills.

Pedagogical / advisory methodical support offers

Debt counseling as a field of social work and insolvency counseling as a means of choice in debt counseling target both the economic and psychosocial problem situations that are caused by over-indebtedness or contribute significantly to the emergence of over-indebtedness. In the process, a concept of so-called “holistic” advice has been developed, which not only tries to solve the current economic problems of over-indebtedness in order to avoid the revolving door effects of recurring over-indebtedness situations in the life cycle of the person seeking advice, but also takes into account the underlying structures. The educational / advisory methodical specialist advice supports the debt counseling centers in this task by offering advice and by developing and implementing projects.

Current areas of work include the financially fit project , an educational program for young unemployed people under the age of 25 and support for the study on poverty, debt and health from the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine at the University of Mainz. The aim is to research the health effects of poverty and debt.

Legal support offers

On January 1, 1999, the bankruptcy law reform came into force. In the course of this reform, the legislature introduced the consumer insolvency procedure and the associated option of debt discharge for private individuals. This has resulted in new legal requirements for debt counseling centers. The debt counseling center supports the counseling centers with legal advice. In addition to insolvency law, questions from foreclosure law, general civil law, maintenance law, loan security law, social assistance law, banking law and payment law are dealt with.

Current areas of work include participation in the working group for commercial debt counseling , which is concerned with ensuring reliable debt counseling offers, as well as processing the effects of Hartz IV and the new SGB ​​II on debt counseling.

Media-technical support offers

The “debt counseling online” project, which began in 2000, was integrated into the specialist debt counseling center in 2001 in addition to legal and pedagogical-methodological advice as specialist media advice. The homepage developed in this context was made available to the debt counseling centers in Rhineland-Palatinate as an up-to-date information and communication platform in autumn 2001 and has since developed into an indispensable transport medium for conveying information between the debt counseling center and the Rhineland-Palatinate debt counseling centers. In addition, the technical media consultancy deals with all issues relating to the handling of new electronic media in debt counseling, especially standard software (especially Microsoft Outlook and CAWIN debt counseling software) as well as data protection / data security.

Current areas of work include the online debt counseling project in Europe , which provides an overview of debt counseling in neighboring European countries, and the debt counseling online project . This is about supporting the development of online advice for over-indebted people seeking advice through internet-based advice services .

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 35 ″  N , 8 ° 14 ′ 30 ″  E