Twenty-somethings No. 1 in overdue phone bills: data

Of all age groups, those in their 20s have the highest total amount in overdue mobile bills, followed by those in their 30s, according to government data Monday.

The Ministry of Science and ICT data, obtained by Rep. Park Chung-kwon of the ruling People Power Party, revealed that as of the end of July, overdue mobile phone payments for people in their 20s reached 5.82 billion won ($4,454,189), with 39,839 overdue cases. Twenty-somethings had the most cases and highest total overdue amount of all age groups.

Those in their 30s followed closely in terms of the total overdue amount, 5.43 billion won, with 39,047 cases. In terms of the number of cases of overdue phone bills though, those in their 40s were second to those in their 20s with 39,684 cases, whereas the total amount past due was less than those in their 30s, at 5.16 billion won.

For other age groups, those under 20 had 6,923 cases and 846 million won in overdue payments; those in their 50s had 36,083 cases and 4.24 billion won past due; those in their 60s had 23,171 cases and 2.59 billion won overdue; and people aged 70 or older had 17,039 cases and 1.4 billion won past due.

Some experts attribute the high total amounts of overdue payments amount those in their 20s and 30s to their often unstable incomes.

The continued economic downturn has also led to an increase in young people giving up on seeking secure jobs over the past year. According to Statistics Korea, the number of people who are neither working nor seeking jobs reached a record high of 2.56 million last month, with the number of people in their 20s in this category rising 14 percent from the previous year to 438,000.