Cash-strapped Australians are living pay cheque to pay cheque

FINANCIAL pressures on households has left one in three Australians living pay cheque to pay cheque and many desperately seeking help with their finances.

FINANCIAL pressures on households has left one in three Australians living pay cheque to pay cheque and many desperately seeking help with their finances.

Concerning new figures from BT Financial Group found 32 per cent of Australians are waiting until payday just to survive, an increase from 29 per cent two years ago.

A growing number of Australians are under financial strain as they cope with their expenses.

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And new figures show the National Debt Helpline is struggling to cope with the flood of calls from cash-strapped Australians calling up for monetary guidance.

New figures revealed in February this year showed nearly 14,600 Australians used the phone service to seek financial counselling, an increase of about 11 per cent from February 2016.

Financial Counselling Australia’s chief executive Fiona Guthrie said a lot of people were now “living close to the edge”.

Financial Counselling Australia’s chief executive officer Fiona Guthrie said many Australians are “living close to the edge.”

“When something happens like you lose your job, get sick or your relationship breaks down and you simply don’t have enough money to make ends meet you may have been using credit to make ends meet,’’ she said.

“At the moment the focus is on giving people more credit and that’s considered the norm, that’s not the way we should be living.”

Ms Guthrie said racking up debt on credit cards was the biggest problem people sought financial help for followed by coping with utility bills.

Latest Reserve Bank of Australia figures show consumers owe more than $51.4 billion on credit cards and $32.8 billion is accruing interest.

Many Australians are racking up debt on credit cards and failing to pay it back.

BT’s head of financial literacy Bryan Ashenden said for those who do you live pay cheque to pay cheque “finances can start to get out of control” when they are not monitoring what they are spending money on.

Despite interest rates being at historically low levels, he said some people were taking on too much debt including larger home loans than they otherwise would if interest rates were higher.

“Wages are not increasing at the rate they once did and while interest rates are low people may have borrowed more than they should while other costs of living continue to go up,’’ Mr Ashenden said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics wage price index rose 1.9 per cent in the December quarter.

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