Samenvatting

In the Dutch debt counseling system, a close collaboration between two trajectories, being voluntary debt settlements and debt settlements imposed by a judge, is vital for the overall success of the system. This article shows that this crucial collaboration is in fact poor, and negatively impacts the success of the debt counseling system. One of the underlying factors is the poor performance of the system as a whole. Although there is a common interest in reducing debts, the involved parties also have their own conflicting interests. The current system fails however to accomplish a tighter collaboration, and even sometimes seems to do the opposite. The authors conclude that a redesign of the Dutch system is necessary to organize a better and more coherent playing field.