Debtsafe Release Survey Results
Debt Counselling practice DebtSafe have released the results of their survey of over 1400 people conducted during national savings month.
The idea behind national savings month is to try to encourage consumers to save since this is a definite weak spot for most South Africans.
DebtSafe says that due to the lack of savings and due to the heavy financial pressure consumers are under there is little way consumers could actually “celebrate” national savings month.
Highlights
Of the 1400+ people they interviewed, 62% were unemployed and struggling to find work (but there may have been other income earners in their household). Both those employed and unemployed are currently having challenges dealing with their debt.
Below is a quick look at the highlights of the survey:
Budgeting
A lot of consumers struggle to make a monthly budget for how they want to use their money. Many surveyed revealed that they simply have no idea of how to budget.
The survey also asked about this as well as which debts consumers are behind on or have been skipping payments on. Primarily consumers first cut back on paying their retail accounts when times are hard.
Savings, Income and Debt Worries
South Africans are some of the lowest savers in the world. This leaves them exposed to any sort of unplanned or unexpected financial difficulty that comes along.
When asked about their biggest financial concern it is therefore not unsurprising that many people mentioned that they were not saving and were worried about that. 80% of all the respondents said they struggle to save to any significant extent.
Other consumers said that their income is not keeping pace with the ever increasing cost of living. Other surveys have revealed that many consumers are now shopping around for better paying jobs to try and make ends meet since they have tried to reduce their spending over time but have now cut back as far as they feel they can.
Get Financial Advice
If you are struggling to save money or to pay all your creditors what they are demanding each month then you should consider going to talk to a NCR registered Debt Counsellor for help to work on a sustainable budget and debt repayment plan.
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