{"id":586100,"date":"2022-05-13T16:30:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T14:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=586100"},"modified":"2022-05-13T16:30:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T14:30:32","slug":"these-income-brackets-in-south-africa-owe-the-most-debt-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/586100\/these-income-brackets-in-south-africa-owe-the-most-debt-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"These income brackets in South Africa owe the most debt right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

New data from debt counsellor, DebtBusters, shows that debt exposure has <\/span><\/span>worsened for most <\/span><\/span>income groups in South Africa <\/span><\/span>compared to recent <\/span><\/span>years.<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On average, consumers have 20% more unsecured debt in 2022 compared to <\/span><\/span>2016, those taking home R20,000 or more have unsecured debt levels that are <\/span><\/span>54% higher than in 2016, <\/span><\/span>said DebtBusters chief executive Benay Sager.<\/p>\n

The financial situation of SA consumers continues to be challenging, even two years after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he said. “In absence of a meaningful increase in real
\nincome, SA consumers continue to supplement their income with unsecured credit.”<\/p>\n

The average loan size has increased by 27% in a few years, and the number of debt obligations (open trades) has decreased by 18% over the same period \u2013 both indicating that consumers have more debt per credit agreement and are seeking help sooner, said Sager.<\/p>\n

Compared to 2016, those consumers who applied for debt counselling in Q1 2022 had 31% less disposable income. Sager said that consumers need to spend around 62% of their take-home pay to service their debt before coming to debt counselling.<\/p>\n

“More alarmingly, the debt-to-income ratio for the top two income bands is at its highest level recorded in Q1 2022 compared to the same periods in the past: 125% for those taking home more than R10,000 per month, and 150% for those taking home R20,000 or more each month.”<\/p>\n

The debt to annual net income ratio for most income bands is at its highest level ever for Q1 consumers, he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What people owe money on<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vehicle debt has increased in the last few years, indicating that more consumers with assets (vehicles in particular) are <\/span><\/span>seeking financial assistance, said DebtBusters.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Read: South Africa\u2019s middle class is in serious trouble right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New data from debt counsellor, DebtBusters, shows that debt exposure has worsened for most income groups in South Africa compared to recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[13165,26],"class_list":["post-586100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-debtbusters","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586100"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586132,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586100\/revisions\/586132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}