TWENTY YEARS ago this month, Wexford’s Money, Advice and Budgetary Service (MABS) opened its doors in a bid to assist the people of the county in dealing with debt.
Over the past two decades, the service has had four addresses in Wexford town and has held regular clinics in New Ross and Enniscorthy also.
Some 36 people have served on the organisation’s board in a voluntary capacity.
Each year, over 300 new clients on average seek the services of Wexford MABS.
In the early days, the majority of those who turned to the organisation for support were unemployed and living in rented accommodation.
The service, at this time, primarily focused on helping people deal with problems associated with money lenders.
A startling rise, however, has been seen since then in the number of people availing of the service who have mortgages and are in employment .
Staff at Wexford MABS never consider clients in terms of statistics.
Money Advisers, as clients have stated, have a special empathy and ability to set minds at ease even when a solution to a problem is some way off.
Services offered by Wexford MABS have expanded in diversity over the years, but providing assistance in respect of debts to credit unions, banks and catalogues remains central to the organisation’s work.
Despite the wealth of advice accessible through MABS, many in the locality remain unaware of the free, independent and professional service and the many ways in which it can provide assistance.
Those who are summoned to the County Registrar Court and in danger of having their family home repossessed, for example, have access to MABS staff as Court Mentors who can advise on their options.
Wexford town Money Advice Co-Ordinator Nicky Rossiter has been with the service almost since the very beginning and will retire in early 2017.
His abiding feeling about his time working with MABS is that what is has achieved for the people of County Wexford over the past twenty years, without having ‘legislative teeth’, has been “miraculous.”
Read more in the Wexford Echo.