My research study
As mentioned in the June 2019 edition of the Devil’s Advocate, for my PhD study at Melbourne Law School, I am researching the impact on debtors of the different options available for consumers who are over-indebted. I’m focusing on bankruptcy, debt agreements and financial difficulty assistance.
Although many people use one of these options each year, we still do not have much information about what happens next, and whether the different options are effective in, for example, providing debtors with a fresh start, or reducing the chance of future debt problems. My study is exploring some of these issues, and in the first stage of data collection, I invited debtors to share their experience through an online survey. Some initial thoughts on the results are set out below.
I am now starting a new phase of the data collection, and inviting financial counsellors, insolvency practitioners, and other professionals in the sector to share their views of the different options, also through an online survey. The greater the response to the surveys, the more I can be confident that the range of views are represented.
Insights from financial counsellors, insolvency practitioners and others
If you work as a financial counsellor, consumer lawyer, or insolvency practitioner, or have another professional role in the consumer debt / personal insolvency sector, I’m keen to hear your thoughts about the different options and their impacts. Please consider completing a short, anonymous survey, available here:
https://melbourneuni.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6RRwGzecQs8dxQx
Finding out about debtors’ experiences
I have been collecting survey and interview data from debtors for some months. Although I am still collecting this data, I have started to review the results to date. Some initial thoughts are:
- There has been a very low response rate to promotion for the debtor surveys, confirming that it is difficult to recruit people for these sorts of studies. Some of the factors that may account for the low response rate include that many people may experience ‘survey fatigue’, given the extensive use of surveys in marketing, customer service, politics and research; specific limitations in this study (for example, using online surveys only, the length of the survey), and/or a reluctance amongst potential participants to revisit issues around debt. A few years ago, researchers in Canada highlighted some of the difficulties associated with empirical research on consumer debt and insolvency (see Sarra and Sarra 2009, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1399627), and I think that many of the difficulties that these authors identified are also present in Australia.
- One of the aims of my study is to explore the impacts of the different options through the lens of financial wellbeing, using the definition “when a person is able to meet expenses and has some money left over, is in control of their finances and feels financially secure, now and in the future” (Muir et al 2017, see https://www.csi.edu.au/media/Exploring_Financial_Wellbeing_in_the_Australian_Context_Final_Report.pdf). An initial review of the data shows that this might be a useful approach: many of the survey responses showed that participants had a higher level of financial wellbeing at the time of the survey, compared to the time immediately before entering bankruptcy or receiving financial difficulty assistance.
- An initial review of the data also points to the emotional relief that the different options provide. For example, one interview participant referred to feeling that ‘a thousand-kilo weight’ had been lifted off them when their bankruptcy was confirmed. Also, in the surveys, the number of participants reporting that they were ‘constantly worried’ about their finances at the time of the survey was smaller than the number of participants who reported that they were ‘constantly worried’ immediately before their bankruptcy. A similar shift was also reported from participants who received financial difficulty assistance. However, it must be kept in mind that the survey samples were small, and not statistically representative of the relevant population.
I’m still seeking participants for the debtor surveys (open until 20 December), so please get in touch with me if you can help promote the debtor surveys by:
- Letting relevant clients or former clients know about the opportunity to participate in a debtor survey;
- Sharing information about the study through social media (eg, Facebook, Twitter).
I can provide some suggested text for an email to clients or a social media post, and my contact details are below. My thanks to those who have already helped to promote the debtor surveys to potential participants.
Privacy and ethics
As I previously identified, the privacy and confidentiality of participants in the study will be protected, and the study design has been approved by Melbourne University’s Human Research Ethics Committee (Ethics ID 1851074; contact [email protected]).
More information
My study will continue into next year, and you can read more about my study here: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/students/grd/students/nicola-howell, and more about my other research and my professional background here: https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/nicola.howell. There is also a separate study website that includes the links to all of the debtor and practitioner surveys: https://debtstudy.wordpress.com/.
Once I have finished collecting and analysing the data, I will share some of the findings through future editions of the Devil’s Advocate.
Thanks for your support, and please contact me if you have any questions or would like to help promote the study!
Nicola Howell
PhD researcher, Melbourne Law School
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Tel: (07) 3138 2006