30% of Poles have a problem with current liabilities and expenses

The problem of 30% of Poles is the lack of money for current liabilities and basic expenses, according to a study commissioned by BIG InfoMonitor. At the same time, 56% fear that financial problems will arise or deepen in the coming months.

About financial difficulties resulting from, inter alia, high inflation is mentioned more often by women (34%) than men (26%) and people aged 25-44 (36%) than others (approx. 27%). Fears of problems in the future are also declared more often by women (62%) than by men (50%), it reported.

"Certainly, the situation of a sharp increase in prices that has not been observed for years is uncomfortable and creates the risk that consumers, overwhelmed with expenses, will not only give up extravagance or entertainment, but will also not be able to settle their current obligations," said the president of BIG InfoMonitor, Sławomir Grzelczak.

Most willingly, the fee for television is postponed, it was indicated by three out of ten respondents, followed by the invoice for the telephone and the Internet (23%). In the event of financial difficulties, every fifth respondent will consider resigning from paying insurance and regulating penalties for driving without a ticket or fines. Current domestic utility, gas and electricity bills were on further expenditure items that could wait in the event of problems with financial liquidity. They were indicated by 15% of the respondents, as well as rental fees, it was underlined.

"In the BIG InfoMonitor Debtors Register there are almost 278,000 people who have over PLN 1.2 billion in outstanding liabilities for unpaid bills. If they want to make another commitment, they may have a problem, because companies usually screen clients before signing the contract. since the beginning of this year, over 7.7 million reports on consumers have been downloaded from BIG InfoMonitor and as many as 17.7 million in the entire last year. On the one hand, companies enter and on the other hand check whether they can trust people interested in their services," added Grzelczak .

The highest average debt, due to the amounts involved, is related to alimony - PLN 43,476. The second position is rent, which is a significant cost for every household - PLN 24,769. In turn, the average arrears for telephone and internet are - PLN 3 577, and for television - PLN 1738. Outstanding utility bills (water, energy, gas, waste disposal) are PLN 407 per person.

The Quality Watch study "Inflation and war in Ukraine and the household budgets of Poles" was carried out on March 25-28, 2022, using the CAWI method, on a sample of 1,056 Poles over 18 years of age.

Source: BIG InfoMonitor and ISBnews