2024-01-11 15:19:41
By Julien Da Sois
Published 10 hours ago, Updated 8 hours ago
In total, 121,617 overindebtedness files were filed last year, compared to 113,082 in 2022. Geber86 / stock.adobe.com
This increase “does not call into question the decline observed for several years”, however, underlines the Banque de France, which reports a halving of the number of files submitted over the last ten years.
After several years of decline, the number of over-indebted households rebounded in 2023. The number of over-indebtedness files filed with the Banque de France increased by 8% compared to 2022, according to the latest monthly barometer of financial inclusion published this Thursday by the monetary institution. In total, 121,617 files were submitted last year, compared to 113,082 in 2022.
Such an increase seems to be explained less by inflation than by the gradual end of the “whatever it takes” policy put in place by the government during the Covid-19 pandemic and its support measures (end employment support schemes, end of fuel rebates, reduction of price shields on energy, etc.). This rebound therefore breaks the positive spiral of reduction in over-indebtedness cases observed in recent years. In 2022, their number had decreased by 7% compared to the previous year. In 2023, “it remained significantly lower than the deposits recorded in 2019 (-15%) which remains the reference year», because it was a pre-Covid-19 pandemic year, however, underlines the Banque de France. And not enough to completely cancel out all the declines. “Over the last 10 years, the number of files submitted has almost been halved», observes the institution.
Read alsoDespite inflation, the French remain less over-indebted than in 2019
“Back to normal”
The Banque de France therefore wants to be reassuring. She estimates the increase observed in 2023 “moderate». «Today, we have a small rebound, but at this stage this does not call into question the decline observed for several years» and a final peak at 230,900 over-indebtedness files in 2014, Mark Béguery, director of individuals at the Banque de France, assured AFP. There has not been, as one might have feared with the health crisis and the inflationary crisis, an explosion of over-indebtedness, notes Mark Béguery. “After the atypical drop in declarations observed in 2020 with the pandemic, this looks like a return to normal, at the level of 2019», he added to the Echoes.
If information on the typology of over-indebted households in 2023 has not yet been provided by the Banque de France, data from previous years show that it is mainly women who file this type of file, rather in the 35- 54 years old, whose standard of living is below the poverty line and who rent their home. Statistics for 2022 show that employees, workers and “other people without professional activity” are over-represented, as are separated, single or widowed people. In terms of amount, the median debt (excluding real estate debts) stood at 16,328 euros per household in 2022. Debts for current charges (mainly housing and energy and communications) are the most present in the files submitted, just ahead of consumer debts (mostly personal loans).
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