After a few humorous words from the MC for the day Mr. Lew Williams the day kicked off with an official welcome from Mr Reinhard Pettenberger (DCASA President). Reinhard is a long time Debt Counsellor (his practice is known as Debt Therapy) and is well known for being passionate about protecting the industry from rouge elements that undermine the reputation of the process.
Reinhard then handed over to Mr John Nickols who specializes in assisting people with trauma and anxiety counselling. Most of the guests reported that this was their favourite presentation of the day.
John is a trauma counsellor who is quick to take his clients to also engage with a Debt Counsellor. This is because of the link between out of control finances and stress levels.
John discussed the various causes of and reactions to trauma and stress and drew a direct link to dealing with debt. He highlighted that the flight or fight reaction kicks in when consumers deal with such pressures. He also discussed how some people get stuck, unable to process the challenges on their hands.
Through an account of a troubled clients who he met in the past he highlighted how trauma counselling and Debt Counselling go hand in hand. The experience spoke to many in the audience who could relate.
Then it was time for an industry update which was handled by Reinhard. The indepth update looked at several ongoing topics such as meeting with credit providers (as an association) and what is happening at the NCR’s Credit Industry Forum.
Reinhard reported that as of January 2023 the CIF are only discussing 3 topics including DCRS enhancements (to handle things like really big long term loans from banks) and DC Fees. There is some interplay between the fees and how DCRS works so it is wise to try work on these topics at the same time. Still without clarity on fees there may be delays addressing DCRS changes. One big change being worked on is DCRS handling massive loans (like those now offered by SBSA) that may take longer than 60 months to repay.
Reinhard also discussed statistics as shared by the NCR about the industry. For example, it is said that there are around 1554 active Debt Counsellors at present. The NCR say that since 2007 over 1.8 Million people have applied for help through debt review (interestingly the credit bureaus stats are off by about 400 000 people there). At present just over 200 000 people are using a PDA to pay off their debts.
Since 2007 the average aftercare fee paid to Debt Counsellors by a client each month is R300 putting the average debt repayment somewhere around R6150. While those are interesting stats there were no recent stats looking at the last 12 months for example. Rather this is everyone ever since 2007 averaged together.
DCASA have been busy meeting with various credit providers about various topics (such as the much disliked Capitec Bank advertising about debt review). DCASA have also met with MFSA and Imas (who were very helpful and have since made some significant changes to their processes to align better with the 2009 NCR task Team agreement).
DCASA is also working with VCCB credit bureau to offer members the opportunity to provide consumers with free credit bureau reports. This initiative can also help identify some consumers who may need debt review help.
Also revealed was a small R50 increase coming in membership fees, there will be more coming webinars and a booklet to help new members. The DCASA NEC and team have been very busy it seems.