According to the data of the National Debt Register (KRD) in 2021, overdue bank loan installments and unpaid utility, telephone, TV and Internet bills amounted to PLN 45.2 billion. For 3 months of this year, they increased by nearly PLN 800 million.
The most indebted are consumers from the Silesia Voivodeship, with PLN 6.4 billion; the second is Mazovia with PLN 6.3 billion, and the third is Lower Silesia – PLN 4.2 billion in arrears. The inhabitants of these regions account for 1/4 of the entire debt in the KRD.
According to the latest available data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland, the average wage in Poland in March was PLN 6,665 gross. The National Debt Register has calculated that the average debt per consumer is PLN 18,651.
“This means that in order to pay off the arrears, a statistical Pole would have to work almost 3 months, and the entire salary should be allocated to the settlement”, says Adam Łącki, President of the KRD Economic Information Bureau.
KRD analysts compared the Central Statistical Office data on average earnings with the registry data on average debt in order to calculate the differences in the number of salaries the inhabitants in the individual provinces would be needed to cover the statistical debt.
The inhabitants of the Lublin region would have to contribute the most (3.68 payments). There, the average earnings are PLN 5,345, and the average debt amounts to PLN 19,661 PLN. In Świętokrzyskie Voivodship, 3.44, with a monthly salary PLN 5,354 and 18,393 of average arrears. The first three provinces include Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship with 3.43 wages needed to cover their arrears. Every month, employees receive PLN 5,316 in this region, and their debts amount to an average of PLN 18,214.
On the opposite side is the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, where although there is the highest average debt (PLN 21.280), the earnings are also the highest in the country – PLN 7,947. Residents have to work there to pay off the average debt of 2.68 months. In turn, 2.74 salaries will be spent on settling the obligations by Lower Silesians. They have an average of PLN18,367, and their remuneration is PLN 6,711. The third is the Pomeranian Province, where people have to pay 2.75 salaries, amounting to PLN 7,067, to free themselves from 19,426 in arrears.
The largest arrears – PLN 24.2 billion are a debt to secondary creditors, i.e. debt collection companies and securitization funds, which bought them from primary creditors, mainly from banks, telecommunications operators and insurance companies. PLN 12.47 billion in unpaid child support payments.
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