Help! Our children are in debt

Our Helpline team receive hundreds of calls each day from worried people struggling with debt, along with parents who are concerned for their children who are in financial difficulty. I recently spent some time observing calls and I was extremely surprised at the number of calls from concerned parents. This made me want to look at this is more detail.

When a parent calls Payplan, we can offer them basic debt advice that they can pass onto their son or daughter. However because you’re calling without their knowledge and therefore haven’t given their permission for you to act on their behalf, it can be difficult for us to give you any specific advice.

What can you do to help?

If your son or daughter is in financial difficulty it can be tricky for you to help them. I would say the first thing to do is sit down and speak to them, and find out how and why they got into debt in the first place. It always helps to understand their situation first as there could be underlying issues that they may need help with. It is important, I would say, to remain non-judgemental: if they have been keeping this to themselves, then they may be embarrassed and all they need is a bit of guidance.

If they are not up to looking for solutions to help their situation they can give permission for you to act on their behalf. At Payplan, they would need to provide verbal or written permission and then we can do all of the work with you.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about your debts then please call 0800 2802816.

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