Indebtedness of financially vulnerable households: What do social workers do?

Abstract

This article reports on research grappling with the question on what social workers, working within a social development paradigm, do to assist households who are caught in a debt trap. A combined qualitative and quantitative exploratory study was conducted with 74 registered social workers rendering services to 10 951 households and representing an NGO delivering developmental social work services in South Africa. The key finding with corresponding recommendations to social workers is that intervention focusing specifically on the indebtedness of financially vulnerable households is much needed, but sorely neglected, in developmental social work services.