What research teaches us: a study of poverty and debt enforcement
Research on democratic values, civic participation, respondents’ circumstances in relation to financial difficulties, lifestyle, financial literacy and related behaviour.
People and debt enforcement
The study mapping people’s experience of debt enforcement was produced for the online daily Alarm by sociologists from the research agency Median. Alarm published a series of features on the subject, “Debt enforcement: the Czech Republic’s guilty conscience”.
The research described people’s experience of enforcement and their situation
The journalist Saša Uhlová estimates that in 2017 enforcement proceedings were brought against 863,000 people, indirectly affecting some two million residents of the Czech Republic. Research among poorer, economically active respondents showed that the most common routes into enforcement are unpaid rent, fines, utility bills or business difficulties, followed by an unpaid loan taken out to deal with arrears on ordinary commitments. Others ended up in enforcement through a combination of unpaid consumer loans.
The interviews undermined the stereotype that people have only themselves to blame: those affected include single mothers and people who suddenly fall ill or whose housing situation changes.
People in enforcement do not trust the rule of law, or each other
The research also found that people in enforcement have low trust in the rule of law, in the enforceability of rights and in democracy, and show lower interpersonal trust. Their views were shaped by their experience of the proceedings, by excessive interest, and by the “incidental costs” of a debt, which can multiply a trivial fine for fare-dodging — or a borrowed library book — many times over. People found themselves in difficult situations created by insensitive legislative changes in previous decades. Although the law in this area was amended in 2017, the old debts remained and the problem is still unresolved.
How the research was used
Besides the series of articles, the online daily Alarm organised a debate with politicians and citizens at the Chamber of Deputies. The issue was discussed across a wide range of media; the research broadened and enriched public debate on a sensitive subject. The series was nominated for the 2018 Journalism Award of the Open Society Fund.
Median works on poverty research on a long-term basis; here is another example of such a project.
