- Australian households are significantly worse-for-wear compared to last year
- Finance-related stress is up and nationwide debt is at an all-time high
- More people reported feeling more severe levels of stress this year than last
- Financial security also plumetted, despite increases in financial knowledge
Alarming new figures have shown the startling effect of Australia’s rising cost of living with most families now forced to live pay-to-pay and with little money saved for emergency situations.
Shocking findings revealed in an Australian financial resilience report released on Friday detailed sharp increases in finance-related stress and plummeting financial security when compared with the same time last year.
Results showed more than 2.4 million people nationwide—or one in eight adults— had experienced high levels of financial stress throughout the past year, which was 1.5% up from last year.
Almost 60% had reported experiencing moderate levels of financial stress; significantly up from last year where results showed just over 50% reported the same stress levels.
Recent figures show most Australian families are now living pay-to-pay and with little money saved for emergency situations
While people were found to have had significantly increased levels of financial knowledge and behaviour, figures still showed financial security at a startling low.
Compared with last year, financially secure households had gone down dramatically, from 35.7% to 31.2%.
National Australia Bank chief executive officer Andrew Thorburn warned families should avoid leaving themselves vulnerable to unexpected bills, with it now particularly difficult to ‘bounce back’, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Nationwide debt had also skyrocketed with the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week revealing it had gone up 80% throughout the past 12 years.
National Australia Bank CEO Andrew Thorburn (pictured) warned families should avoid leaving themselves vulnerable to unexpected bills because it was now more difficult to ‘bounce back’
The trend was also mimicked by income inequality, which has continually increased over 10 years, according to Good Shepherd Microfinance CEO Adam Mooney.
‘There’s been a large shock to manufacturing in Australia closing down…some people have been forced to take out loans to draw some standard of living,’ he said.
‘The cost of living is increasing significantly above the CPI (consumer price index), including the price of energy.’
He recalled many of his clients requesting no-interest loans simply to purchase more energy efficient white goods.
Good Shepherd Microfinance CEO Adam Mooney (pictured) said many people had taken out loans just to purchase more energy efficient white goods