근로빈곤층의 부채에 대한 질적연구: 부채발생과 파급효과를 중심으로

노대명; 박창균; 박상금; 한솔희; 김솔휘

근로빈곤층의 부채에 대한 질적연구: 부채발생과 파급효과를 중심으로 = Household Debt of the Working Poor in Korea: Qualitative Analysis of the Causes and Ripple Effects

제목: 근로빈곤층의 부채에 대한 질적연구: 부채발생과 파급효과를 중심으로 = Household Debt of the Working Poor in Korea: Qualitative Analysis of the Causes and Ripple Effects

저자: 노대명 ; 박창균 ; 박상금 ; 한솔희 ; 김솔휘

키워드: 근로빈곤층 ; 가계부채 ; 과중채무 ; 질적분석

발행연도: 2017

발행기관: 한국보건사회연구원

초록: 연구는 근로빈곤층 가계부채 문제와 관련해서 다음 몇 가지 문제에 초점을 맞추어 실태를 진단하고, 그로부터 정책적 시사점을 도출하고자 하였다. 첫째, 근로빈곤층 가계부채에 대한 실증분석(양적 접근방법)을 통해 이들이 처한 상황의 심각성을 확인하는 것이다. 근로빈곤층의 가계부채의 유형과 규모 등을 다른 소득계층과의 비교를 통해 살펴보고 있다. 둘째, 과중채무를 안고 있는 근로빈곤층에 대한 사례연구를 통해 이들의 부채가 근로빈곤층 당사자와 그 가구 구성원에게 어떠한 영향을 미치고 있는지 살펴보는 것이다. 가족 해체와 가계부채로부터의 탈출이 어떻게 진행되고 있는지에 초점을 맞추고 있다.
이들의 경제사회적 자립을 위해서는 안정적인 고용과 적정한 노동소득의 확보가 가장 중요한 요인이다. 하지만 정작 근로빈곤층의 가계부채가 이들의 취업과 자립에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지에 대해서는 잘 알려져 있지 않다. 따라서 이 연구는 양적 접근방법과 질적 접근방법을 결합하는 방식을 통해 문제에 접근하고자 하였다. 양적 접근방법을 통해 근로빈곤층 가계부채 문제의 심각성을 확인하고, 그것이 답하지 못하는 문제, 즉 가계부채의 발생 원인과 확대 경로 그리고 그 파급효과에 대해서는 질적 접근방법을 통해 보완하는 방식을 택하고 있다.

Household debt in Korea has been rapidly increased and its impacts on economy and society are also getting bigger. The government devises various household debt restructuring measures in order to cope with its potential risks. First of all, we should acknowledge that increase in household debt may influence the reduction of savings and eventually negatively affect economic growth. However, household debt not only influences lives of individuals and families but also the society as a whole. Especially, household debt of the working poor, whose income is relatively low and budget for spendings is tight, should be dealt with more discrete policy measures. The working poor are engaged in economic activities and support family, but hold bigger potential risks of having household debt due to their low income and instability in employment, or losing a job. Also, it should be noted that once a household has debt, it is likely to lead to default.
This study looks into other countries’ experiences focusing on cases of England, France, and Japan. The reason why the countries are chosen is to investigate how household debt issues emerged in different economic and social systems, how finance authorities in each country coped with the problems, and how differently their impacts appeared. The analysis showed that England left the problems until worsened and later enforced stricter regulations on credit suppliers. This is an example that household debt issues, especially the household debt of the low-income group, may be resolved in large part by the financial authorities’ willingness. France, on the other hand, adopts strict regulations on financial market and credit supply to the low-income households. Also, France takes systematic approaches to mend the household debt problems in connection with welfare policy. Japan experienced household debt problems earlier than other countries and has taken measures after having gone through social problems such as suicides as a result of multiple debts. The particular point of Japanese household debt restructuring is that it focused on controlling ripple effects from multiple debts and suicides. It is worth noting that Korea’s household debt has largely followed the experience of Japan. Although Japan implemented stricter regulations on financial market after amendment of the Money Lending Business Act, Korea still neglects problems from proliferation of lenders.
Chapter 4 focused on the household debt by income groups and of the working poor. It analyzed differences between the low income group and other income groups in respect to size and burdens of household debt and possibility of repayment. Recently, strict regulations are implemented and the increasing trends of household debt have slowed down, however, the low-incomers’ burdens already reached to a serious level. Examining indicators of debt burdens such as debt to income ratio, debt to asset ratio, and repayment rate of principal to income, low incomers’ debt burdens are revealed far greater than the high income group’s, and the low income group is exposed to structural vulnerability as having more credit loans with adjustable rate. It is unlikely that deteriorating quality of low income group debt harms stability of financial system. However, considering their vulnerable socioeconomic status, it is very likely that their household debt may lead to social problems.
Chapter 5 examines household debt of the working poor in respect of the relationship between earning ability and needs for spendings. The working poor, among the poor, presuppose a certain level of earning ability as being able to work or in the range of working age. However, they are relatively vulnerable in labor market. The proportion of temporary workers, daily workers, self-employed small business owners, and the unemployed are very high compared to the total average. Consequently, they are the group whose earning ability is weak. The problem is that households with children or children in school are more often found in the group, which shows higher pressures on household spendings. This implies the higher possibility that the working poor in Korea may put up with having household debt due to the low income level and bigger needs for spendings. Also, cost of living and debt caused by consumption account for a large portion of the working poor’s household debt. Looking into the use of household debt, living expenses as its biggest share and education costs take up 38.2% and 15.2%, respectively. However, combining all factors related to housing, it becomes a bigger share than the education costs. This suggests that preventing debt caused by living expenses makes a crucial policy objective.
In Chapter 6, we tried to answer questions that are difficult to examine through empirical analysis. It aims at identifying the causes and courses of household debt, its impacts on family, debtors’ difficulties, and efforts to escape from household debt by interviews with the over-indebted. The result showed that actual female household heads, who compose the biggest portion of the over-indebted among the working poor, fell into divorce and over-indebtedness due to their spouse’s debt. They have been putting efforts sacrificing their health, but still have difficulties to take care of children. Also, the reason why they struggle to repay debt is found in the process of using credit cards in order to maintain necessary expenses, mainly to pay rent. Moreover, many of the female household heads who are in the regenerative or credit recovery process were aware of these risks. Many over-debtors were attempting to start a business, left being unable to get a job due to their default status, which causes a vicious cycle of debt.
In conclusion, we made policy proposals on household debt of the working poor, largely dividing them into financial policy and social policy. Regarding financial policies, it takes the perspective of normalizing the small loan financial market. The policy option suggests redesigning the MISO financing program, which has been promoted by the government, fostering the cooperative financial institutions, and promoting the borrower-friendly credit counseling system. In the case of social policies, the policy option suggests strengthening the role of social security system. Given the low income of the working poor, it means that household debt should be curtailed as expanding income by public transfers that supplement earned-income. To this end, it is suggested that strengthening income security for the over-debtors among the working poor through rearranging basic livelihood system, establishing employment support programs considering their employment capabilities, and establishing statistical infrastructures for the over-debtors in the working poor in order to clearly grasp the size and reality of the targeted group. In particular, reflecting the Japanese experiences, the measures for the shocks from the household debt should be coordinated with the multiple indebtedness and suicides.

목차: Abstract 1
요약 7
제1장 서 론 11
제1절 문제 제기와 연구 목적 13
제2절 연구 방법 18
제3절 연구 내용과 그 한계 20
제2장 이론적 검토 23
제1절 부채 문제의 역사적 진화 25
제2절 가계부채의 이론과 조작적 정의 36
제3절 가계부채와 근로빈곤의 문제 49
제4절 가계부채의 발생과 파급효과 61
제3장 주요국 가계부채 문제와 빈곤층 지원정책 73
제1절 각국 가계부채 문제의 추이와 최근 동향 75
제2절 영국의 가계부채 실태 및 지원정책 92
제3절 프랑스의 가계부채 실태 및 지원정책 114
제4절 일본의 가계부채 실태 및 지원정책 136
제4장 저소득층 가계부채 실태 진단 153
제1절 들어가며 155
제2절 소득계층별 가계부채의 규모와 추이 156
제3절 저소득층의 가계부채 보유 형태 164
제4절 저소득층 가계부채의 부담 실태 175
제5절 소득분위별 가계부채 결정 요인 184
제6절 소결 189
제5장 근로빈곤층 가계부채의 특성과 결정 요인 191
제1절 들어가며 193
제2절 근로빈곤층의 규모와 특징 194
제3절 근로빈곤층의 가구 특성과 취업 특성 200
제4절 근로빈곤층의 소득과 소비 그리고 부채 206
제5절 가계부채에 대한 소득계층별 태도 219
제6절 가계부채가 근로빈곤에 미치는 영향 229
제7절 근로빈곤층 가계부채 결정 요인 237
제8절 소결 245
제6장 근로빈곤층 가계부채의 발생 원인과 파급효과 251
제1절 들어가며 253
제2절 연구방법과 조사의 개요 254
제3절 가계부채 발생 원인과 그에 대한 인식 266
제4절 가계부채 및 과중채무의 파급효과 275
제5절 과중채무와 채무불이행으로의 진입과 탈출 285
제6절 복지정책과 비영리지원기관의 역할 300
제7절 소결 308
제7장 결론 및 정책 제안 311
제1절 연구 결과의 학술적 시사점 313
제2절 금융정책과 관련된 정책 제안 317
제3절 사회정책과 관련된 정책 제안 337
참고문헌 355