The JustRestart case

The collective debt settlement is a Belgian judicial procedure for individuals in which debtors can resort to a complete or partial debt remission while taking a fresh start. Commissioned by the Community Bar Associations OVB and OBFG, Aginco built a secure and intuitive digital platform for collective debt settlements so that these proceedings can be handled considerably faster while boosting transparency.

Since 1999, similar to the judicial reorganization for companies, the collective debt settlement for individuals came into effect. A person struggling to pay off debts can apply for collective debt settlement through a request to the labour court. According to a report of the National Bank of Belgium, over 74.000 collective debt settlements were ongoing in 2020.

The Collective Debt Settlement procedure engages a range of stakeholders on multiple levels. To name but a few:

  • the debtor who initiates the procedure
  • the debt mediator (in most cases an attorney) who proposes a settlement plan
  • the competent court that evaluates the proposed settlement
  • the creditors
  • all the in-between links (e.g., court clerks, social services, …)
  • other supporting services (e.g., budget coach).

When the labour court agrees to grant the procedure, the court appoints a debt mediator who works out a settlement plan. Besides paying back debts, a settlement plan (amicable or judicial) can also provide for accompanying measures (e.g., budgetary control) to concretize the idea of a new beginning. These encourage and help individuals and their families to make a fresh start.

This complex procedure constitutes an ideal case for Aginco. Firstly, we leverage upon the experiences of building RegSol, the Belgian Central Solvency Register, which handles Belgian corporate insolvency files within the courts of commerce . Secondly, there are many technical analogies between the collective debt settlement procedure and the insolvency procedure (including bankruptcies and judicial reorganizations). This means that we can also transfer our technical experience between the two projects.

Nevertheless, we've had a lot of untangling in the process: our teams took a deep-dive into roles, documents, timelines, authorizations, etc., to set up the platform’s framework. Who connects with whom at what time? Which signatures and permissions are needed? Who has visibility into what part of the file? In what way do external services connect? Using in-depth interviews, research data and user testing, a first version of the platform was made available on Nov. 2, 2023.

 

 

“We've had a lot of untangling in the process”

 

 

Since the launch of the platform, several adaptations and additions have already been developed, where we continue to build the platform into the main tool for all stakeholders. Together with them, we have built JustRestart on the building blocks we already had and developed new ones tailored to their needs. In doing so, we have an impact not only on more than 74,000 people (and their families) but also on all actors in the field, who work within the platform on a daily basis, such as debt mediators, all sorts of social services , but also the many creditors and their representatives .