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MANY PEOPLE IN mortgage arrears are contemplating suicide or turning to alcohol, according to a new survey.
The Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO) and clinical psychologist Dr Eddie Murphy questioned 488 people aged 29-70 years who are in debt.
The survey found that:
David Hall, IMHO CEO, said the survey should “act as a wakeup call” to the government.
Hall said that five IMHO clients have taken their own lives.
“As we face into a government formation all parties need to show leadership in ensuring that the reforms required to deal with legacy unsustainable debt are coupled with a comprehensive strategy to make sure that citizens are not, unnecessarily, scarred for life by the experience,” Hall stated.
Murphy, who is running in the Seanad elections as an independent candidate, said the survey results indicate significant levels of distress, depression and suicidality.
Anecdotally up to now in clinical practice we see the link between debt stress and suicide, these alarming results confirm this link. Immediate action is needed to support those in debt stress as it impacts on individuals, families communities and our society. This problem cannot be ignored.
The survey was based on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale developed by the Harvard Medical School.
Some 280 men and 206 women took part. The respondents were in various levels of debt, ranging from less than €250,000 (over 50%), €250,000-€500,000 (about 28%), €500,000-€1 million (just over 10%) to debt in excess of €1 million (about 8%).
More information on IMHO’s services can be read here.
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Sadly a farmer in nenagh took his own life this week. His mortgage company destroyed him and his family with 25% interest rate… What’s happening and being allowed us shocking… It could be any of us , be it renters, mortgage holders . who knows you is safe. Who knows if or when your mortgage is sold to a vulture fund..
is shocking.. Who knows who is safe
The people who are safe are those who didn’t take out unsustainable mortgages.
4 farmers in the space of 48 hours took their lives during the week.
Moderate are you really stupid or acting stupid. Hard to tell. What part of people losing jobs because of the banking crash, economy downturn. Recession did you miss.. Unbelievable the nonsense people like you spouting. Educate yourself
The people who are safe Michael are those that are getting writedowns and deals from nama , who know the ones like bono and co..
Michael… Your comment alone shows you are not a bright spark… Because in saying what you actually said means the banks gave out unsustainable mortgages in the first place which surely doesn’t add up now does it…
Littleone – Where in my comments have I defended banks or said that they didn’t give out unsustainable mortgages? You have just proven that you are not a bright spark.
Michael your very first comment…
Moderate Michael
35 minutes ago # 65 31
The people who are safe are those who didn’t take out unsustainable mortgages… Which in what you are inferring is people took out unsustainable mortgages when they first got the mortgage…
Thanks Littleone for that comment on aptly named ‘vulture funds’. Correct me if I’m wrong here but banks pass on their bad debts at a discount to so called finance management firms who then extort that debt with huge interest hikes on the individuals concerned?
To me this is yet another example of unscrupulous money making; so much in vogue by today’s neo liberalist ‘get rich quick’ merchants.
It seems that Ahern and Co’s ‘lite touch regulation’ still prevails and the numpty’s we elect to govern us are ok with that?
Or maybe Michael your comment further down..
Moderate Michael
42 minutes ago # 89 22
Sorry, but we all have problems, and I don’t want to be held responsible for your gambling debts.
How exactly does that imply I am defending banks?
Let’s see Michael …because banks have sold debts to vulture funds etc , who then charge extortionate interests rates which sadly for people they can’t afford .. Interest rates like 25% . your comment is having s pop at the people with unsustainable mortgages … Like referring to them as gambling debts.. It’s not what you said it’s what you didn’t say speaks for itself….
Moderate Michael should change his name to “Malevolent Michael”. He consistently posts cruel comments. Some people are just nasty.
I had been told only this evening of this horrific case. Can you email me any additional details : david@mortgageholders.ie thanks
Funny how the banks are allowed to use bully boy tactics on the same people who actually bailed them out after all their criminal activity.
Don’t worry though it will be grand sure FF will have a role to play in our new government.
Someone call Bertie for some advice….
Which is strangely what RTE have been doing recently.
The highest variable interest rates in Europe is a disgrace, There should have been conditions attached to the bank bailout. I heard that mortgages will soon be available from any bank in the eu. Not before time!
I have always said this about people in mortgage arrears.Its horrific worrying day in day out if you are going to lose your home.Im so angry with Fine gael for not addressing it when they were in power and equally disgusted with that fianna fail shower who caused all this.And the cheek of them to putting themselves forward for the next government. This a very serious crisis folks and needs urgent attention. I hate to hear families struggling to stay in their homes.its awful.
22 percent have active plans to kill themselves that’s very scary
Absolutely disgraceful.
That’s what happens when democracy is subordinated to the interests of global corporations. The Seanad is next up, another establishment club. FF FG and Labour have presided over the greatest sell out in Irish history, much of it peppered with criminality.
Next up TTIP…….
Moderate Michael please change your name to Michael the moron. Take a lesson in the economic collapse in Ireland in the last decade & you will find it was the banks & the political elite that destroyed this country. How dare you come on here & comment about situations you know nothing of. Have you no compassion or empathy for your fellow countrymen & women.
Is Moderate Michael moronic or malevolent or both?
The gamblers are the rich and wealthy who got us to pay for their debts via the bailout. The people we are talking about now are the victims of the property bubble
In and out of my therapy room I was aware of the toxic nature of debt related stress and a number of tradegies associated with it. Working with the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation I wanted to go beyond clinical hunches & practice based evidenced. I was not shocked regarding the levels of distress, depression and alcohol related difficulties. However I was deely concerned and schocked regarding
- 31% have had suicidal thoughts in the last 4 weeks
- 22% had had active plans to kill themselves
This is a wake up call for scaling up and supporting statuutory and voluntary partners. We need Access to 24/7 crisis supports and next day rapid access clinics with evidenced based talk therapies available.
Hi Eddie, had any of the participants of this survey suicidal thoughts or tendencies prior to getting into debt or is there an assumption that it is being in debt that has lead to this level of depression and suicidal thoughts? My question isn’t trying to critique the methodology but it is out of general interest, the stats are quite alarming to say the least.
Will be getting full results uploaded over next few days
Is it just me or are certain aspects of the economy far worse now than the worst years of the recession (2009-2012). Yes there are more jobs, but there are also a truckload more taxes, charges and levies, cost of living, rental crisis, mortgage arrears etc. I was actually optimistic about this “recovery” initially but when you really think about it, life is a lot worse for many many people in this country now than during recession. What good is a job if you’ve nowhere to live, or are feeling suicidal ?
Thought I’d remind everyone how banks work, especially now with the new 0%by the ECB.
The ECB prints money from tin air, lends it to our banks (now at 0% interest).
So basically our banks get given free loans with no interest, to repay the ECB. They (the banks) loan money to us with interest, we pay the loan back + massive interest. Banks are laughing all the way to the…bank.
We are complete muppets sadly and even bailed them out.
Also remember the central banks of Europe are private companies, not government bodies
DM how else are they supposed to make money? If they had larger margins they may not have needed a public bailout for their bad loanbook
Are Rte News reporting about the suicides?
People in mortgage arrears should receive help. Give them a write down on the mortgage, a percentage of the property belongs to the government. If you sell in the future the money is paid back.
MM.. If you dont care about other peoples problems, why should anyone care about yours..
The problem at the moment is that the Government (sic!) would prefer if the price of property for purchasers would increase. That way they can claim that more houses are not in negative equity. It looks good on paper. The Nama stuff is debt that was so bad that it was to be disposed of at a significant loss on the grounds that these debts could only be partly recovered. With the upturn and scarcity of places to rent the vultures have been facilitated. I have great sympathy for anyone who bought their family home at the height of the boom and subsequently through unemployment and reduction in income are now in difficulty. I have no sympathy for speculators who deliberately bought multiple properties on the basis that prices would always increase and then fleeced tenants. People whose family homes are at risk should have their mortgage now based on the reduced value of the house less the deposit they paid when purchasing; this could be reviewed biannually in light of the gradually increasing values. Those in the farming community who borrowed to improve the viability of their farms should have the interest rate on their loans reduced to zero for a five year period to enable them to recover.It is high time that the Government got tough with the lying financial institutes that facilitated the crash and were bailed out by the people of this country otherwise nothing has been learned.
Debt reduction is the only effective solution in the longer term. When debt is too high, the solution is judicious reduction, carefully applied and subject to rigorous financial assessment and forensic scrutiny.
The rule of thumb is that no one can on a sub €100 annual salary afford to spend more than 30% of net income on rent or mortgage repayment.
LPT, water charges, increasing cost of insurance, increased household expenses and long term wage/ salary containment, on the one side, and the extremely higher variable mortgage rate, relative to an ECB rate of 0% on the other side exacerbates an already unsustainable situation for many families.
Michael is this how you defend your pathetic argument by deflection. You’re a coward that has no understanding of the world & the complexities of people’s lives.
Wonder did anyone ask the Homeless how they Feel
Work away Ste.
When you have a government that consists of rent boys for corporate greed, who have directly fed that greed by legislating to make it easier for banks to get evictions, there is going to be human cost. What we are seeing is a human tragedy caused by a greed for profit. Any one expecting the government to do anything to help, or to intervene , are living in cloud coo-coo land. All you have to do is listen to Micheal Noonan, the poster boy for vulture funds, and remember his record as minister for health.
Three families a day are having their homes repossessed by the banks. Actual repossessions. Hundreds more face the despair of the eviction courts every day where that are treated with loathsome contempt. Why is it only now we are getting the reports and the statistics of the human cost of the banks treatment of people. It has been going on for years. In any other country it would have prompted a revolution, given that we bailed these banks out as a result of their own greed. Why isn’t our national media raising a stink or asking questions about this. We all know the answer to that. We can see the examples here of commenters trying to blame the victims of banker’s greed on the victims. And victims they are. We have to stop allowing governments putting banks and vulture funds before the basic needs and rights of ordinary people. We need to start organising days of stoppage, and shut the country down both on this issue and the issue of IW.
The Spanish Courts no longer grant Possession Orders or enforce evictions. The Spanish police, fire service and locksmiths refuse to cooperate with evictions. In some cases, buyers black list buying homes of evicted owners..
Irish people tend to be highly compliant and servile to authority. We like to respect our betters, the Bankers and vulture funds.
Really Paul & can you direct me to your peer reviewed study on the Internet. Give the phone back to the adults before you get into trouble.
Ask anybody related to somebody who killed themselves,
Paul I am.
Paul
Wrong I used to think that do until someone I knew who kept threatening to kill himself went into the armoury, drew his rifle to clean it,bingo the cleaning room, took a round out of his pocket ( he’d kept it following a range day), loaded and blew the back of his head off.
The those who threaten won’t theory is wrong
Don’t let them win, if you feeling this way people will help. Tell them to take it back or write up your out goings and show them this what I can offer you take it or leave. It not worth stressing about it and it not worth your loved ones living without.
Well said. It is a tough ordeal but fully engaging with the problem brings its own hope. Banks and vulture funds need to enciurage despair in the hope of getting a walk over.
If every mortgage default is fought by every borrower, the resources of the Courts will nkt be enough to handle thus.
The Spanish Judges became so horrified by the scale of the consequences in Spain that they have informally placed a moratorium on granting Possession Orders.
All distressed borrowers need to avail of help.
There may be no effective civil legal aid but there are other advisory options.
What will happen when the floodgates of Possession Orders are granted by the Irish Courts to the Irish Banks in respect of approximately 38,000 mortgages in arrears for more than 2 years. Where will these familes go?
The problems of mortgages arrears became evident in 2010. Both FF and FG have failed to take charge of this problem.
The CBI has now directed the iIrish Banks to take more immediate and effective legal enforcement action against distressed borrowers.
One bank ( can’t remember which at the moment) has sold 10,000 mortgages to ONE vulture fund. Can you imagine the worry and distress that these 10,000 families/people are going through.
Ulster Bank has sold more mortgages to vulture funds but all Banks have engaged in the practice.
The operation of the vulture funds in Ireland is effectively unregulated and uncontrolled. Ireland is perfect paradise for the operation of vulture funds.
That said, distressed borrowers can find help and the critical thing is not to let Banks obtain Possession Orders or Summary Judgments by default.
First thing to do is to serve a Section 4 Data Protection Disclosure notice and trawl through the paper work with a fine tooth comb. There are often errors in the formalisation of the mortgage.
Voluntary surrender of properties to Banks or vulture funds is a bad idea because they come chasing for the shortfall following sale. Always recruit external assistance.
There is no shame in mortgage arrears. Engage with the problem and look at the full range of options. There is always hope.
What?
If you are in debt and need help please contact us http://www.mortgageholders.ie . There are solutions . Have received significant feedback regarding people trying to deal with debt and taking their own lives . I read some of the same feedback in comments here. Please take Controll and seek help. Debt is not the end of the world , help is available .
The IMHO does great work. There is life after debt.
The banks will not relent in cases of suicide. The banks need to be confronted, challenged and resisted so that deals can eventually be negotiated.
There is no shame in debt. It was an accident of timing and predatory bank lenders.
The pressure is certainly immense. I dealt with it by trying to take as much positives from the situation as I could. Some days that’s easier said than done but you need to keep yourself on track. Here’s a link to some posts I did about the process, you need to scroll down, the first post starts at the bottom. https://forbetterorbankrupt.wordpress.com/category/home-repossession/
Being self employed during the recession and then bloody austerity crushed us. No help from the social, even though all taxes et all were paid. No medical card, no help with the mortgage, no butter vouchers. Just more tax. Now I have to sell my house. Never once did I feel suicidal, but, rage, anger and determination, yes. I don’t seek your pity or your dirty pound moderate Michael, all I seek is your comradery.
My heart breaks for anyone going through that kind of stress. My opinion would be losing your home would be a lot less stressful to your family than loosing your life, if you’ve hit that rock bottom point you’ve got to think “F**k it, f**k the house and f**k the banks, let them have it, if the house has become a noose around your neck let them have it, is renting an option, moving back into a parental home, there’s no shame in it and claw your way back again without that horrific stress. My heart breaks for any family going through that.
but why turning to alcohol when we all know it has already destroyed many families. What these people need is hope and support from the Govt to get them out of this situation.
Terrible the grief and pain and anguish caused by greedy heartless non compassionate ruthless faceless as$holes that should be in prison for their careless attatude of doing business and policies, ie bankers and politician’s, quote “must get on the property ladder “
Well said Seamus..
Pips can help debtors write off unjust debt and restore mental health
Moderate John if only life was so simple, just as your thought processing , what if you lost your Job , got a serious illness ???
Should read , have committed suicide !!
What sord of human would give a thumbs down
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