Coleen says

I think she could use some proper advice on her debt and her finances in general. She can contact a debt charity such as StepChange (stepchange.org; 0800 138 1111), which can provide financial advice, as well as devise a debt management plan to help pay off debt at a manageable rate.

In terms of what you should do, this time you could offer to give her some money to pay off her debt on the condition that she agrees to a plan where she pays you back with no interest and within a certain timeframe.

And, of course, another condition should be that the money is used only to clear debt and not for anything else.

I guess it boils down to whether you can trust her to do this. But it would probably give her some breathing space to get her head above water financially.

You should also advise her to get rid of any credit cards because she shouldn’t be spending money she hasn’t got.