There are 3334 of them nationwide. They are boys, up to the age of 18, who have been familiarising themselves with debt from an early age. Fare evasion is often treated by them as a sport or a game. However, experts say where debt begins, fun ends.
Currently, there are over 7,000 youngest debtors in the National Debt Register of the Bureau of Economic Information, aged from 14 to 18 years old, with debts totalling PLN 4.2 million. Slightly less than half of them, 47% to be precise, are boys. They account for PLN 2.08 million of overdue financial obligations.
The reasons for this situation are many, starting from the lack of financial education, upbringing and the influence of social media, to scenarios that life itself writes.
Not just a lack of education
According to a survey conducted by Kantar Polska on behalf of International Personal Finance, the owner of Provident Polska, over half of Poles believe that financial education should already be compulsory in primary school. As many as 7 out of 10 respondents want compulsory financial education to be introduced in secondary schools. At the same time, 6 out of 10 respondents believe that companies in the financial sector should also carry out financial education activities, and 48% see their role in financial inclusion.
In the opinion of experts, financial education should be instilled in children from an early age at home. Social media and influencers also increasingly influence young people.
“Young people learn through observation. They may not understand many issues, such as difficult terminology or complicated financial instruments, but they must have basic knowledge about how to handle money instilled from early years of their childhood. Such a value is the belief that services or products must be paid for, bills must be paid on time, and borrowed money must always be returned. If these rules are not observed at home, the child will not do it either. Another source of knowledge and habits for young people is older siblings, peers, friends from the environment or even influencers. It is increasingly the case that social media have a much greater influence on children than parents or school,” says Adam Łącki, President of the National Debt Register.
Boyish debts, adult consequences
However, the Internet is not the only source of trouble and negative influences. Life writes its own scripts, and the best proof of this is the fact that such creditors as telecom operators, urban transport companies, railways and courts are trying to recover these boyish debts.
“Where debt begins, fun ends: boyish debts have their adult consequences. And these are high financial obligations that need to be repaid. Such debts do not cancel themselves automatically when the debtor turns 18. On the contrary, they can be a very heavy burden at the start of adulthood: they can prevent taking out a loan or getting a mobile phone subscription or buying on installments. The majority of juvenile debts are mostly fines for fare evasion, but not only. There are also unpaid phone bills or court fines. The average debt of a typical boy in the KRD [National Debt Register] is PLN 624, but a certain eighteen-year-old from the Bydgoszcz district owes a telecom operator PLN 19,039,” says Adam Łącki.
The next two record holders have similar debts: an 18 year old fare evader from Łódź accumulated (and did not pay) fines for travelling without a ticket worth PLN 12,954, while an 18 year old from Zabrze made calls with two telecom operators amounting to PLN 12,872 and also did not settle them.
Debt in a big city
Young debtors are most often found in Greater Poland. Their debt is also the highest: PLN 357,000. The province of Silesia is second in terms of the number of debtors, although the total debt in this region (PLN 145,000) is less than that in the Łódź province (PLN 315,100).
“Some of the boys listed in the KRD do not have an assigned address at all, because when entering a debtor into the register, the creditor is under no obligation to provide this information. However, from the data we have, it is clear that people from large cities, with over 300,000 inhabitants, predominate in terms of both numbers and total debt. There are the fewest debtors in rural areas and in small towns with up to 10,000 inhabitants. This is most likely the effect of the fact that the majority of the debt consists of fines for fare evasion, and in cities young people have much greater access to public transport. Another issue is the fact that in cities young people have more freedom to spend their free time without parental supervision. This sometimes results in fines or various kinds of misdemeanours,” adds Adam Łącki.
