Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 235: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will provide MABSIS data for 2008 for each MABS centre in respect of the number of new clients, the number of new clients earning a wage, the number of new clients with a mortgage and the total and average debt owed by new clients when they first presented to MABS. [2772/09]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 236: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the data from the MABSIS system for 2008 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. [2773/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 235 and 236 together.

The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) provided services to 16,600 new clients in the period to end December 2008. In addition, 2,441 people sought information about budgeting and money management. The MABS National Helpline received approximately 11,000 calls in 2008.

The detailed statistical breakdown of clients per centre requested by the Deputy is not readily available from the MABSIS. However the national MABS statistics show that the majority of new clients were on social welfare payments (59%), the highest numbers being almost 2,900 (17%) who were in receipt of the one parent family payment, 3,000 (18%) who were in receipt of jobseekers payments and 2,300 (14%) in receipt of illness/disability payments. Some 28% of clients were in receipt of wages and 3% were self-employed.

Clients mostly lived in rented accommodation, with 27% living in private rented accommodation and 24% in rented local authority accommodation. People with mortgages made up 28% of clients and 7% lived with parents. The total owed by new clients in 2008 to creditors, based on the debt they had when they first came to the MABS, amounted to €205 million, which works out at an average amount of €12,400 debt per client. Of the total amount of debt 64% was owed to banks/financial institutions, 16% was owed to credit unions, 3% was owed in respect of utilities bills and 1% was owed to moneylenders. Information on new clients per MABS company up to the end of December 2008 is detailed in the following table.