News report | 19-02-2026 | 12:00
Her Majesty Queen Máxima, honorary chair of the Financially Healthy Netherlands Foundation (SFGN), will make a working visit on Wednesday, February 25, to the Irene community center in Bloemhof, Rotterdam Feijenoord. The municipality of Rotterdam has one of the highest percentages of households with problematic debts. To tackle these more effectively, Rotterdam has been a partner of SFGN since its establishment at the end of November 2025.
At the Irene community center, residents can drop in weekly at the information desk with questions on various topics, including financial problems. The information desk refers people for help, such as guidance with debt restructuring, information about financial arrangements, and appropriate provisions. Queen Máxima speaks in the living room of the community center with the manager, a resident, and staff of the information desk about their experiences. The information desk is one of the activities of the welfare organization SOL (Samen Ondernemend Leren) active in several cities in South Holland.
Queen Máxima subsequently participates in three roundtable discussions on tackling problematic debts and helping financially vulnerable households in Rotterdam. Alderman Abigail Norville emphasizes the importance of good cooperation between partners in the debt assistance chain, prevention, and early detection of financial problems. Employers can play an important role in the latter. Financial problems among employees are often noticeable in the workplace. Another focus of Rotterdam is supporting young people for a financially healthy future.
The three themes of the roundtable discussions are: Rotterdam and debts in figures, reaching employees, and reaching young people. Special teams from the municipality, for example, walk in neighborhoods with billboards about financial help. They offer people on the street guidance for solving financial problems and debt assistance trajectories.
Participants in the discussions include experts by experience, (policy) staff of the municipalitys debt assistance, SOL, regional employers, students with financial problems, and a policy officer and student coach from Albeda College. The insights from the discussions contribute to strengthening cooperation and knowledge sharing among partners within SFGN.
The Financially Healthy Netherlands Foundation was launched in November 2025 after merging SchuldenlabNL and the National Coalition Financial Health. The foundation stimulates public-private cooperation to structurally improve financial health. The joint ambition of the more than fifty partners within SFGN is to reduce by fifty percent the number of households that are financially vulnerable or unhealthy by 2030.
RVD, no. 57