Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 380: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the 2007 data from the MABSIS system in relation to the number of new clients, the number and percentage of new clients on social welfare and by type of payment, the number and percentage of new clients earning a wage, client profile by tenure type, the total debt owed by new clients when they first presented to MABS with a breakdown by creditor type and the average debt owed by new clients when they first presented to MABS. [5270/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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During 2007, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) provided services to 12,433 new clients. In addition, 2,643 people sought information about budgeting and money management. The MABS National Helpline, which was launched on 4th October 2007, dealt with some 1,700 calls. The majority of clients were on social welfare payments (57%), the highest numbers being 2,455 (20%) who were in receipt of the one parent family payment, 1,800 (14%) who were in receipt of jobseekers payments and 1,762 (14%) who were in receipt of illness/disability payments. Some 29% of clients were in receipt of wages and just under 3% were self-employed.

Clients mostly lived in rented accommodation, with 30% living in private rented accommodation and 26% in rented local authority accommodation. People with mortgages made up 20% of new clients and 7% lived with parents. The average amount owed by new clients in 2007, to creditors, based on the debt they had when they first came to the MABS amounted to €7,600; of this total €94.6 million indebtedness, 55% was owed to banks/financial institutions, 19% was owed to credit unions, 6% was owed in respect of utilities bills and 2% was owed to moneylenders.