Mortgage stress: Qlders at risk of losing homes before Christmas

More and more Queenslanders are at risk of losing their home as the mortgage bite hits hard.

Financial stress has exploded in Queensland in the lead up to Christmas.

Financial services are being inundated before Christmas with some Queenslanders at risk of losing their homes before the holiday period, as mortgage stress grips the state.

The Financial Counsellors Association of Queensland’s 2024 Questionnaire showed 71 per cent of counsellors had seen an increase in clients with mortgage stress.

While 63 per cent has seen an increase in clients presenting with rent arrears and 53 per cent reported an increase in clients presenting with energy and utility debts.

Statistics from the National Debt Helpline show calls for support are on track to surpass last year with 24,806 already this year compared to 26,711 the year before.

Volunteering services are also being inundated with people needing support, while they grapple with the need for more volunteers.

FCAQ executive officer Jon O’Mally said there had been an increase in calls to counsellors just before Christmas with banks starting to put pressure on people who can’t afford to keep their houses.

“We’re worried with the banks foreclosing, and as we’re seeing, there’s more people and ending up being homeless, it’s really weird because they’ve still got jobs,” he said.

“There’s still a number of people under hardship arrangements when it comes to their mortgages.

“These are all the pressures leading into Christmas, where people are struggling to make rates, make mortgage payments, pay electricity bills and then you have all the other social impacts as well, particularly around family domestic violence.”

He said people were just trying to survive financially.

“It’s a new type of mortgage stress – we’ve never seen the rate that high for the as the last 18 months,” he said.

“But its in line with people not being able to pay their debts as they fall due. That’s a simple equation.

“More people falling in the basket of not being able to pay their debts and their expenses as they fall due.”

He said Queensland was the lowest funded state or territory when it came to financial counselling.

Premier David Crisafulli has been trying to ease cost of living pressures.

“The bubble has increased when it comes to financial vulnerability in Queensland, and we need these types of support services,” he said.

“Obviously there needs to be some government intervention.

“Our biggest concern now with our financial counsellors is their own wellbeing. They’re just they’re just mentally drained, with the workload.”

A spokeswoman for the Treasurer said the Crisafulli government was already taking action to drive down cost pressures on all Queenslanders.

“The Crisafulli Government will work with existing financial counselling and support programs to deliver support for Queenslanders now, while pulling every lever to ease long-term cost pressures on families,” she said.

Volunteering Queensland chief executive Jane Hedger said this year particularly there were a lot of people experiencing financial stress.

“We do know that this year there are obviously increased cost of living pressures, and we know that it will be more difficult for people, so they will start to lean more heavily on all of those social services that we have,” she said.

“Like Meals on Wheels and soup kitchens, but also lifeline services and a lot of those other housing social supports and financial support systems that people access.”

Ms Hedger said the cost-of-living had affected the volume of volunteers coming forward with some places desperate for the extra help.

“For a lot of those services, they’re looking for people who volunteer on a regular basis, they’re looking for people to fill regular volunteering shifts,” she said.

“As cost of living rises, the amount of both time and money they have to volunteer reduces, because we all kind of think that volunteering is free, because volunteering is people giving of their time at no charge, but there’s a cost to the volunteer.”

Originally published as Mortgage stress: Qlders at risk of losing homes before Christmas