Aussies skipping healthcare, meals to keep a roof over their heads

Nearly half of Aussie adults have been unable to pay their rent or mortgage over the past year, and were forced to skip meals or healthcare to make ends meet.

Nearly half of Aussie adults have been unable to pay their rent or mortgage over the past year, and were forced to skip meals or healthcare to make ends meet.

The Scanlon Mapping Social Cohesion 2024 Report, which tracks views on key social cohesion issues, found that financial stress was widespread, with 41 per cent of respondents saying they were either ‘poor or struggling to pay bills’ or ‘just getting along’, with an even higher proportion among renters (61%) and young adults aged 25 to 34 (50%).

Aussies are skipping meals to make ends meet. Picture: Istock

The survey found that the economy was still the ‘biggest problem facing our country today’ for almost half of Australians (cited by 49%, compared to 48% in 2023), followed by housing issues and affordability (cited by 15%, the same proportion as last year).

“Overall, 48 per cent of renters and 26 per cent of mortgagees often or sometimes went without meals, could not pay their rent or mortgage or went without healthcare or medicines in the last 12 months due to a lack of money (46 per cent of renters and 26 per cent of mortgagees in 2023),” the report revealed.

Meanwhile, the report also revealed that young people see homeownership as important but unlikely in the next decade.

“With a pause in interest rate rises and slowing inflation in 2024, it may have been hoped that

financial stress would ease in the last year,” the report said.

“However, with the cost of living still high and real incomes shrinking, the experience of financial stress has been stubbornly common.”

Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent at its last board meeting. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

The report noted that financial pressures continued to be a “strong drag on social cohesion”, with those experiencing hardship less likely to trust in government, institutions and other people in society, feel a substantially weaker sense of national pride and belonging, a greater sense of social isolation and are more likely to have negative views on migrants and multiculturalism.

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Australia Day at Bondi Beach. Photographer: Tom Parrish

Despite the many challenges facing Aussies, the long-running survey found that social cohesion remained stable over the past 12 months, but was “substantially below” levels recorded during the pandemic.

Report author Dr James O’Donnell, from the Australian National University, said that while global and local challenges had put Australia’s social cohesion under strain, it had not cracked.

“While there has been decline in key areas like trust and sense of safety, and financial stress remains a top concern, the continued strength of our communities may be protecting our sense of wellbeing and harmony,” Dr O’Donnell said.

But he said that young people and financially stressed individuals were feeling increasingly locked out of the housing market, and those facing financial hardships often showed less trust in government, institutions, and other people.

The findings come after The Call Unanswered report by Impact Economics revealed that more than three million Aussies were now “at risk” of homelessness.

Grim reality: 3m Aussies at risk of homelessness

The report, which surveyed specialist homelessness services across Australia over two weeks in September 2024, found that rental vacancies had been at record lows since mid-2022, sitting at just 1.2 per cent in September, half the availability in January 2020 or around the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tent cities have popped up around the country. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

Impact Economics principal and report author Dr Angela Jackson said that cost of living increases always hurt those on lower incomes the most and thee figures highlight the extent of that hardship.

“Most of us would expect that if we needed help with finding somewhere to sleep tonight or to avoid eviction, we would receive that help but that is not the reality for many with homelessness services overly stretched,” Dr Jackson said.

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Originally published as Aussies skipping healthcare, meals to keep a roof over their heads