More than half of South Africans spending 40% or more of income on debt, survey finds
A new survey has once again raised alarm about the levels of income spent by South Africans on debt repayments.
DebtBusters’ latest Money Stress Tracker has drawn on data from 26,000 respondents, making it one of the largest online surveys about how financial stress impacts South Africans’ lives.
According to the survey, 75% of respondents said they feel financially stressed, while 93% said it was negatively affecting their home life.
The Executive Head of Debt Busters, Benay Sager, said that 68% of consumers spend more than 30% of their after-tax income on debt repayments.
"You can see the big difference is when it comes to age, and again, there is some correlation between this and income levels. I think more alarmingly for us, 53% of consumers are spending 40% or more of their take-home pay to repay debt and that is definitely not sustainable.
He said women are 10% more stressed about finances than their male counterparts.
Four out of five women who were surveyed said they are suffering from financial stress.
"I think the difference is quite vast there,” Sager noted.
“It’s across the board for all the different areas of significance, worried about running out of money, worried about paying off debts, inflation and school fees. For these reasons, there is a big difference between men and women. I think women take on a lot in terms of running households, and we know that a lot of households are headed up by women.”
Sager said that although older people and those in the higher income bands are least worried, they have the highest levels of unsustainable debt and are less likely to seek help.
"There are many statements of intent, but only a few are action-orientated. For example, the one that says I made a budget, and I am sticking to it. That is great, and it’s real action.
"Or I am trying to cut back on my monthly spending. That is well-intended, but are you doing it or not? What we found was that overall, it’s a bit long on intent but a bit short on action.”
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