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The article explores the link between financial exclusion and the problems of social exclusion and the at-risk of poverty and highlights relevance in the context of social policy. The study seeks to analyze the problem of over-indebtedness as a threat to financial exclusion. The purpose of the study is implemented by disclosing the concept and causes of financial exclusion, analyzing over-indebtedness measurement and management.
The tendency to over-indebtedness is determined by a whole palette of factors: social, demographic, economic, psychological, behavioral. It examines which groups of society are most likely to face financial difficulties in fulfilling their financial obligations and other household payments and to be over-indebted.
Assessing gross debts of households and the scope of over-indebtedness, links with the socio-economic environment and available demographic data of debtors in Lithuanian municipalities are established. Over-indebtedness figures are analyzed using a secondary analysis of the Centre of Registers (database of open bailiffs' files, 1995–2023), the Official Statistics Portal, and the Employment Service for 2022. The data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, also Pearson correlation and linear regression were performed.
The result of the study shows alarming increase in the amount of over-indebtedness in Lithuania. Over-indebtedness arrears are unevenly distributed among the population of different ages. The situation is not homogeneous between large and small municipalities. Results show that in large municipalities there is strong positive link between debts per person, poverty rate and amount of average salary.
The problem of financial exclusion, and especially over-indebtedness, requires further extended research and increased attention in the political agenda.

So far, research on the causes of over-indebtedness in Europe has predominantly focused on the characteristics of individuals or households. This article investigates to what extent country-level factors are associated with a European household's risk of being over-indebted. We examine variables that reflect policies aimed at combating over-indebtedness (the average level of economic literacy prevalent within a country and its classification into a specific debt-discharge regime) and variables that reflect other welfare-state policies (a country's affiliation to a specific employment regime and a summary measure referring to the net replacement rate in the case of long-term unemployment). The results, which are based on multilevel logistic regression analyses of European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for 27 European countries, suggest that all four country-level factors matter. This particularly applies to the variables reflecting other welfare-state policies, thus underlining the relevance of the design of social policy in fighting over-indebtedness.

PurposeThis paper seeks to measure and characterise the extent of consumer over‐indebtedness among the European Union (EU) member states.Design/methodology/approachThe study evaluates alternative measures of over‐indebtedness on the basis of the permanent‐income/life‐cycle theories of consumption behaviour and adopts a subjective approach in identifying over‐indebted households on the basis of European household survey data. It then investigates the main characteristics of over‐indebted households.FindingsThe empirical results reveal that over‐indebtedness was a significant problem across EU member states in the mid‐1990s. Moreover, an inverse relationship emerged between the extent of the over‐indebtedness problem and the extent of consumer borrowing across EU countries.Research limitations/implicationsAnecdotal evidence seemed to suggest that some main factors behind over‐indebtedness could be "market failure" on the credit market, the existence of liquidity constraints and lack of access to formal credit markets. However, a comprehensive and rigorous investigation of the extent and determinants of over‐indebtedness can only be achieved through analysis of more extended household data sets, particularly panel data.Practical implicationsThe EU credit markets exhibited certain symptoms of "market failure", on the one hand, and there was also need for further financial liberalisation in the Southern European countries, on the other hand.Originality/valueThe paper provides a first systematic evaluation of existing measures of consumer over‐indebtedness as well as the first EU‐wide empirical investigation of the problem. It should provide valuable information to the credit industry as well as financial regulatory bodies.

Background: The low participation of households in financial system is common in rural areas of Rwanda and other developing countries. Fear and limited access to financial institutions constitute major factors explaining this and it threatens household financial wellbeing. To address these threats the government of Rwanda adopted a new national financial policy in 2008 setting up Umurenge SACCOs however against their expected impact on improving household financial wellbeing, most borrowers in these financial institutions are over-indebted which increases their exposure to credit default risk. In 2019 umurenge SACCOs had the highest debt of Frw 5,587,021,359 in non-performing loans equivalent to 11.76% that is beyond the required threshold of 5% and some of these non-performing loans started being written-off. This is detrimental to economic development and causes social problems at a personal level as well as the economy at large. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to assess whether individuals with the higher level of financial literacy have better financial management skills, which reduces the risk of falling into over-indebtedness. Method: The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect data from a sample of 357 respondents selected from the target population of 3279 clients using Solvin's formula. 3 staff and 3 presidents of the board, audit and credit committees of SACCO Wisigara Rangiro were selected purposively. Data were collected using questionnaire and interview guide and analyzed using SPSS Pearson's Correlation Test and Multinomial logistic regression model. Results: To assess the level of financial literacy among U-SACCO clients under the period of study the researchers used the descriptive statistics. The results showed that on the total of 357 clients, 9 (2.5%), do not have knowledge related to financial literacy at all, 98 (27.5%) had financial knowledge, 81 (22.7%) had the financial skill, 58 (16.2%) had financial attitude, 75 (21.0%) had financial behaviour and 36 ...