Experts claim New Zealand's ongoing failure to deal with bad debt is costing the country over $2 billion per year.

Debt management firm DebtManagers says a human-centred and customer-led approach to debt will reduce the issue- as the current one-size-fits all approach isn't helpful.

Executive director Charles Whiting says adding interest and collection fees is counter-intuitive to getting debt repaid faster. 

"We talk about people going into arrears- often debt is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues they're experiencing." 

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