For the first time in six years, the number of over-indebted persons in Germany has fallen again this year - albeit only slightly. Currently, some 6.92 million consumers are unable to pay their bills, the credit agency Creditreform said in their "Debtor Atlas Germany 2019". That is almost 10,000 less than last year. Yet, for every tenth adult, total spending was consistently higher than revenue.
The main reason for the slight decline in over-indebtedness, experts see the good development in the labor market in recent years. However, it is to be feared that the positive trend will only be short-lived, as the economic conditions in Germany have recently deteriorated significantly again.
Against the trend, the age over-indebtedness also increased significantly in 2019. The number of people over the age of 70 who were unable to pay their bills rose by 44.9 percent to just over 380,000 in just twelve months. Among 60- to 69-year-old consumers, the number of over-indebted individuals increased by 15.3 percent to 640,000. Even more dramatic is the development in a comparison with the year 2013. Since then, the number of over-indebted seniors from 70 years have increased by 243 percent.
Here, the pension reforms of the past decades, which almost always aimed at a reduction of the security level of the statutory pension, made themselves noticeable, it says in the Debtor Atlas. In addition, the growing number of unsteady employment biographies and the growth of the low-wage sector had an impact.