Mabs case study: ‘He walked away from our debts’

Geraldine’s problems began three years ago when her husband left Ireland – “He walked away from our debts, our marriage and the country.” Geraldine, in her late 40s, was left to bring up two children on a part-time job. And deal with the couple’s debts.

Although their family home had been purchased about 20 years ago, a subsequent remortgage plus credit union loans put her financial situation under severe pressure.

As Geraldine says, it’s been a “horrendous” time. “I’m a bit proud maybe; I don’t talk about it – people have their own problems.”

After the separation, she sought out social welfare supports, but didn’t qualify for family income supplement (FIS) as she wasn’t working enough hours.

“I thought I might be better off not working,” she recalls, but did not want to to do so because she had always supported herself.

But then the demand letters started coming in from her creditors.

“It was very intimidating; they were ringing constantly and while they were very nice, the letters were scary,” she says, noting that every time the phone rang it was “someone new”, and she would have to tell her story all over again.

She made her way to Mabs, somewhat reluctantly. “I kind of felt what good can they do. I thought I had control. I thought how can you make more money out of nothing?”

The service put together a detailed budget for her, which included cutting off her phone line and reducing the family’s TV package.

“It was probably a bit of a reality check that I had to budget better,” she says. “I was used to having a nice house, a nice car.”

More significantly, perhaps, Mabs was also able to get Geraldine the family income supplement. “I had given up on it, but it’s made such a difference.”

Then the bank started proceedings to sell the house. “They definitely pick on you if you’ve equity in the house and you go into arrears,” she says.

While Geraldine is now back paying “99.9 per cent” of her mortgage every month, there are arrears of about €7,000 outstanding. Efforts to reschedule this have been hampered by the fact that her absent husband is on the mortgage contract.

At one stage, Geraldine thought she would have to sell up, but “it’s the only thing I have left. If it wasn’t for the back-up of Mabs, I would probably have sold the house”.

Now she is cautiously optimistic that her situation can be resolved.