Manama: More than half of the financial problems that led to legal problems and prison terms among Kuwaiti families were caused by overspending, unwise management of finances and loan-taking, a study indicates.

The analysis by a social solidarity society that looks after prisoners said that the findings applied in 60 per cent of the cases where families suffered financial problems.

“Foreign travel in some cases costs the family their salaries for one year due to poor financial planning and over-reliance on credit,” Musaed Mandani, the head of the society, said, quoted by Al Seyassah daily on Sunday. “We have had also to deal with cases where wives had been forced to engage in financial transactions through taking loans. This in turn exhausted the family salaries and led to more borrowing from any quarter,” he said.

Another reason for “financial deterioration among families” is that the husband forces his wife to give him power of attorney over her money and she cannot refuse in order to avoid marital problems, including divorce, he added.

“Such situations eventually result in legal complications and we try to help through offering assistance,” he said.

The society last month helped 171 families with assistance worth 157,759 dinars (Dh2.04 million), he said.