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Editor's Note

It can be tough to do hard work all day, every day and nobody notices.

When hard work goes unrecognised, your motivation can slowly be leeched away by the daily grind. And even if what you are doing matters, it can still feel that you, yourself and your efforts are invisible to others.

We live in a very self focused world where people don’t thank us or recognise our efforts as much as they probably should. We get taken for granted and subjected to unreasonable demands on a daily basis.

This is why I love Awards season.

The Debt Review Awards comes around in October each year and shines a light on all the hard work done by Debt Counsellors, credit providers, attorneys and others who make the process work. Now, it would be fantastic to hand an award to every person in the industry but, even if others were recognised this year and maybe you were not, that doesn’t mean that you are not seen. The entire event shines a light, in the media and in the public eye, on what we are doing, as an industry, to help people.

At the moment, Debt Counsellors are quick to point out that there are scammers trying to trick debt review consumer into giving them money to “get out of debt review” or trying to trick consumers to switch services when it is not helpful or necessary. Sure, those are serious issues. We understand how consumers are getting hurt and that’s not great. But Debt Counsellors who educate their clients reduce their risk. Those who have practice sessions with clients to help them prepare to avoid these scams are doing ok. Extra work, for extra benefit.

We, as an industry have to go above and beyond to get through this swampy patch. When times are tough it requires extra work. We have to find those who are taking the lead and follow their example. This is why it is so important to have an awards event. To celebrate our wins; to tell people how great debt review is. It is not something to be embarrassed about. No, it is amazing.

250 000 people are paying back 10% of all debt repayments on impaired debt through this amazing process. That’s a massive win. A win for credit providers, a win for the SA economy and a win for the hard working consumers on their way to becoming debt free.