This article mentions suicide. If you or anyone you know needs support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or at lifeline.org.au, or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or at beyondblue.org.au/forums.
If you are experiencing financial hardship, you can call the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 for free, confidential and independent information and advice.
Since Libby lost her son Ben in 2020, she says her life has become much more ritualistic.
"It's been four years and not a day goes by that I don't just think about him. I've got little shrines to him around the house and visit his plot every week. His hat is placed on top of his pillow and I kiss it every night before I go to bed. These rituals bring me comfort and help me feel close to him," she says.
Ben, she says, was the life of the party. He loved cars and bikes and was extremely loyal to his friends. Libby says despite their close relationship, it was only after he died by suicide and she sought copies of his bank statements that she became aware of the financial trouble he was in.
There were about five or six loans from payday lenders and then there were a lot of Afterpay [loans] as well ... [he] just got himself into this debt trap and couldn't get out of it
Ben's mum, Libby
"There were about five or six loans from payday lenders and then there were a lot of Afterpay [loans] as well," she says.
"If he had any issues [with money] he could have come to me, and I know he knew that, but he was an extremely proud young man who just got himself into this debt trap and couldn't get out of it," Libby says.
Now Libby is doing all she can to make sure fewer young people find themselves in the same kind of debt trap her son Ben did.
Fighting for change
Libby requested detailed documents from the payday loan providers about Ben's accounts, but some of these requests were initially denied. It wasn't until a coroner's report found that Ben's debts appeared to play a role in his death that she was able to get a fuller picture of his financial troubles.
"I went through two years of his statements, it took nights and nights. I watched his life spiral out of control over two years in those pages. I started to see a pattern emerge where he had loans, and he wouldn't miss a payment because when his money got low, he would just request another loan and they would just approve it, every time," she says.
A coroner's report found that Ben's debts appeared to play a role in his death
Libby reached out to the Consumer Action Law Centre (CALC) in Melbourne who at the time were helping with the Stop The Debt Trap campaign to advocate for reforms to payday lending laws.
She spoke to various parliamentarians about Ben's story and the need for change and eventually, at the end of 2022, those reforms passed parliament. Around the same time, she also took one of the payday lenders to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) alleging irresponsible lending to her son.
"I said I don't want money [as compensation], I want an acknowledgement that this is irresponsible lending. I wanted the payday lender to acknowledge that they needed to change what they were doing or this could happen to another young vulnerable person. Providing more loans does not solve debt, it just contributes to it," she says.
AFCA would later say they couldn't proceed with the case as more than two years had elapsed since the loan closed.
Educating young people
Claire Tacon, assistant director of financial counselling at CALC, says cases like Ben's are common among young men who often take out multiple "predatory" payday loans and other credit products and find themselves in difficulty.
She says the number of young people ringing the National Debt Helpline for financial assistance is very low, though these numbers are higher on the text-based chat functions available online.
"We need to reach out to young people where they are, we find the online chat is a lot less scary and a lot more familiar for young people who might not want to talk on the phone," Tacon says.
As well as advocating to Parliament, Libby has teamed up with the Harrison Riedel Foundation to make a series of easy-to-consume financial help resources available on their youth-based app Yourcrew, which encourages engagement and help-seeking around a range of topics.
Would it have changed my son's life if he had this information? I would like to think yes
Ben's mum, Libby
The resources discuss buy now, pay later products, debt traps, credit cards, scams, tax and superannuation.
Libby says she hopes to get resources in the hands of as many young people as possible and says that if she can make a difference to even one young person's life it will be a success.
"There are so many hidden costs, traps and admin fees in these loan products. Ben didn't miss payments, but he still got caught in this debt trap," she says.
"Would it have changed my son's life if he had this information? I would like to think yes."
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
