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Stuart Stamp

Personal Information

Name:	Stuart Stamp
Position:	Doctoral Fellow
Department:	Department for Applied Social Studies
Organisation:	NUI Maynooth
Location:	PHD area, John Hume Building
E-mail:	stuart.stamp@nuim.ie
Telephone:	++353 87 3163773
Research Interests:	over-indebtedness, money advice
Research Group(s):

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Projects

Project Title:	'Personal Debt, Poverty and Public Policy in Ireland: the Impact of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service on Over-indebtedness among those in Poverty'. (completed 2009).
Supervisor:	Prof. Séamus O'Cinnéide
Project Abstract:	This is a study of the long-term impact of the Irish Government's main policy response to over-indebtedness among those in poverty, namely the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS). The main objectives of MABS are to enable people to cope with their immediate debt problems and become financially independent in the long term and to this end, MABS works closely with the Irish credit union movement. There has been no academic evaluation of the impact of MABS services on both over-indebtedness and poverty. Nor is much known about whether those in poverty are more likely to experience debt problems, whether their problems are different from those of others, and what causes them. The present study has two main objectives. Firstly, to identify the relationship between over-indebtedness and poverty in Ireland; secondly, to examine the effectiveness of public policy in this area by evaluating the long-term impact of MABS. It uses two existing datasets to address the first research objective, namely a series of annual poverty surveys (the Living in Ireland Surveys 1994-2001) and administrative data gathered by MABS on its service clients. To fulfil the second research objective, and to gather information on the causes and consequences of over-indebtedness, new data was sought in an interview survey of a sample of MABS clients. The conclusions are threefold. Firstly, that there is a strong relationship between over-indebtedness and poverty in Ireland and that people in poverty experience different and more severe debt problems than others. Secondly, debt problems are triggered predominantly by things that happen to people rather than things that are done by people. Thirdly, the MABS model helps people to manage their debts and their poverty, but not to become financially independent. A more strategic, multi-dimensional approach is therefore required.

 

Publications

• 'A Money Advice Handbook for Advisers in the Republic of Ireland', PAUL Partnership 1993.
• 'You & Your Money - A Self Help Guide', PAUL Partnership 1993 - sponsored by the Director of Consumer Affairs, ESB and the Department of Social Welfare.
• 'Poverty, Indebtedness & Exclusion from Financial Services', - Submission to the National Anti-Poverty Strategy, Credit & Debt Policy Group 1996.
• 'A Good Practice Manual for Money Advisers' - Comhairle, 2003 (subsequently updated for MABS National Development Ltd. 2006)
• 'Research highlights need for focus on higher persistent debt risk to poor households', Action on Poverty Today, Issue 14, Autumn 2006. http://www.combatpoverty.ie/publications/povertytoday/2006_AoPT_14.pdf
• 'A Policy Framework for Addressing Over-indebtedness', Combat Poverty Agency, 2009. http://www.combatpoverty.ie/publications/APolicyFrameworkForAddressingOverIndebtedness_2009.pdf
• 'An Exploratory Analysis of Financial Difficulties Among Those Living Below the Poverty Line in Ireland', Research Working Paper, Combat Poverty Agency, 2009. http://www.combatpoverty.ie/publications/workingpapers/2009-02_WP_FinancialDifficultiesAmongThoseLivingBelowThePovertyLine.pdf
• 'Genworth Index of Financial Vulnerability: Findings, Trends and Implications for Policy in Ireland'. Presentations at the Launches of the 2009 and 2010 Genworth Indices of Financial Vulnerability, Conrad Hotel Dublin, November, 2009 and October 2010.
• 'Debt Counselling Typologies in Europe' [Presentation], European Seminar, Belgian Observatory on Credit and Over-indebtedness, 30th September and 1st October, 2010.
• 'National and European Policy Responses to Over-indebtedness' Paper presented at ESRI Conference: "Financial Exclusion and Over-indebtedness: Challenges and Policy Responses". 8th March 2011. http://www.esri.ie/docs/Financial_Excl_Stamp.pdf

Presentations

• 'A Vision/Future Strategy for the Money Advice and Budgeting Service', Paper in 'Debt and Money Advice in Ireland: A Partnership Approach', Report of the First National Money Advice Conference, Ennis, 4-6 April 1997.
• 'Do Money Advisers have a Role in Consumers' Education?' Paper in 'Consumer Debt Problems in a Changing Europe', Report of the Third European Conference on Consumer Debt, 23-25 September 1998.
• 'If budgeting is the answer, what is the question?' [Presentation], Combat Poverty Agency, 4th December 2007. http://www.combatpoverty.ie/research/seminars/presentations/2007-12-04_StuartStamp.pdf
• 'Over-indebtedness, Poverty and Policy in Ireland: Some Lessons for the Prevention of Over-indebtedness', Paper delivered to EU Mutual Learning Workshop on Financial Inclusion, Sardinia, 13th February 2009. http://www.fininc.eu/gallery/documents/w4/1-stuart-stamp-2009-02-13-sardiniaconferencepaper-handout-notes.pdf