AICCCA asks its Members to provide data about the services they provide through its Quarterly Statistical Survey. This survey asks for general statistical information about the clients served by Member agencies, such as age, average gross income, the main reason for seeking help from the agency, and the type of debt placed into debt management plans. Thanks to those Members who have been submitting data for a few years, we are able to discern significant trends in the type of clients seeking services from member agencies and the types of services they seek.
Data received from the 2007 Quarterly Statistical Surveys revealed the face of an average consumer credit counseling debt management plan client in the early stages of the national financial crisis.
In 2007 the average client:
· Was 41 years old
· Was “working class” (as defined by average gross income)
· Was from the Midwest
· Was seeking help with credit card debt
· Placed an amount of debt equal to 65% of his/her average annual gross income on a DMP
· 1% of the debt placed into the DMP was secured debt
Data collected from the first two quarters of the 2011 Quarterly Statistical Surveys confirms what our counselors have been observing in their offices: that the continuing financial crisis has brought a change in the portrait of the average consumer credit counseling debt management plan client.
In 2011 the average client:
· Is 44.5 years old
· Is “middle class” (as defined by average gross income)
· Is equally likely to be from the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic
· Is primarily seeking help for reasons other than credit card debt, job loss, divorce, or medical issues
· Is placing an amount of debt equal to 40% of his/her average annual gross income on a DMP
· 4% of the debt placed into the DMP is secured debt
David C. Jones, Ph.D.
AICCCA President
