“Winging it”: How youth workers navigate debt with young people

Abstract

Debt is a growing, but poorly understood issue for young people in Australia and internationally. To understand how young people seek help with debt, we conducted interviews and focus-groups with 16 youth workers and two financial counselors. We found that youth workers are often the first point of connection for young people experiencing debt. Young people were unlikely to seek help specifically for financial issues but disclosed these issues to trusted youth workers when addressing other concerns. However, youth workers do not have any formal training in this area. We argue that although youth workers are well positioned to support young people in relation to financial issues due to their skills in working with complexity, they are under-resourced for this role. Without adequate resourcing, providing support to young people experiencing debt and financial stress is likely to remain a growing area of concern for an already over-burdened and under-resourced sector.