Anna Angelin

Over-indebtedness is a societal problem affecting nearly half a million individuals in Sweden, placing them at risk of deteriorating health and well-being. Municipal budget and debt counselling services constitute the only welfare actors that offer preventive support to individuals at risk. Despite this, regulations governing preventive debt counselling in the new Social Services Act remain vague, and there is a lack of methodological guidance for how such work should be carried out. This study aims to investigate the conditions for preventive debt counselling within social services by examining a one-year early intervention targeting young adults aged 18–30 with rent arrears. As part of the intervention, attempts were made to contact individuals and offer debt counselling. The debt counsellors who implemented the intervention were interviewed to explore the conditions that shaped their discretion and coping strategies. The results show that the early intervention was affected by resource shortages in relation to the labour-intensive nature of the work, while the regular operations still had to be maintained. Additional challenges included difficulties in establishing contact with the target group, as well as ethical considerations concerning the balance between the intervention’s potential benefits and its risks for participants—particularly the risk of intrusion of the individual’s autonomy. To manage the discrepancy between available resources and the intervention’s objectives, the debt counsellors employed the coping strategies of creaming—prioritising the regular client group who were motivated and accessible—and rationalisation—simplifying the legal framework regulating preventive debt counselling. The conclusions discuss the preconditions for preventive debt counselling in light of the study’s findings.