Is there a way an individual can create a debt on the National Insurance number? This debt could be paid off when that person begins working and would operate in very much the same way as the government student loan system.

For example:

Four 12-13 year olds vandalise a bus stop and cause £1000 of damage. £250 worth of damage should be recorded on each of their National Insurance numbers. When they start working they would repay this money to the initial council/person/company who carried out the repairs.

Why is this idea important?

Would this work? I don't see any major hurdles.

It would mean those who damage things pay for it not the tax payer. A typical yob could be in £10k of debt by their 18th birthday but hopefully when he gets a job (or starts claiming benefits) he will begin paying back the money he owes (obviously with inflation based interest).

I think this would make things a lot fairer and could reduced reoffending individuals as they would know they will pay for their crimes.

Some quick examples:

Just these three figures alone add up to 14 million, thats £70 million pounds saved over 5 years! (Thats over 500 people's average salary per year saved)

Costs of criminal damage

  • Transport for London estimates that criminal damage caused to buses in London costs the industry over £10 million per year.
  • In North West England, local authorities in partnership with transport operators assess the costs of vandalism at almost £4 million per year.
  • 15 per cent of all the windows in Greater Manchester bus shelters have to be replaced each year. One bus stop provider has put this figure at 3 per cent nationwide.
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