{"id":880299,"date":"2026-10-19T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=880299"},"modified":"2026-10-19T12:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T10:39:11","slug":"people-earning-a-salary-are-in-trouble-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/880299\/people-earning-a-salary-are-in-trouble-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"People earning a salary are in trouble in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recent survey showed that household debt burdens have increased in South Africa, with over half of respondents now spending more than 40% of their take-home pay on debt repayments, up from 38% in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This increase reflects a bigger problem across the country. The survey highlighted that 65% of South Africans find it financially difficult every month, up from 61% in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the survey found that 43% of South Africans need to borrow money before the end of the month to cover living costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to the financial services company JustMoney’s Money and Me survey, which showed that South Africans are under increasing financial pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey is based on over 5,400 responses collected during July and August 2026. It assesses the financial lives of South Africans, focusing on how they earn, borrow, spend, save, protect, and build trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JustMoney Head of Customer Experience, Sarah Nicholson, said that South Africans are having to make difficult financial choices just to get through the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that people are turning to credit and retirement savings to bridge their shortfalls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among respondents with a retirement annuity (RA), the share who have made a two-pot withdrawal rose from 56% in 2025 to 62% in 2026, and to 69% among those earning R10,000 to R35,000 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes despite an overall positive shift in retirement savings, with the share of respondents without an RA falling from 41% in 2025 to 32% in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey data showed that the largest share of withdrawals was less than R5,000, suggesting that retirement savings are increasingly used to manage cash-flow pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The findings are a clear reminder that financial pressure has long-term consequences when short-term needs take priority,” said Nicholson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results from the survey showed that fewer than one in five respondents can cover a R10,000 emergency from their savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even among respondents earning more than R35,000 a month, 57% cannot cover a R10,000 emergency from their savings, which shows that income alone does not ensure financial resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey shows that rising family responsibilities are a major constraint, with 46% of respondents supporting four or more people. These respondents have only a 7% likelihood of saving 10% or more of their income every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans are looking for extra income but losing it all<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Money & Me survey showed that many respondents were looking for extra income, with many turning to “side hustles”, buying and selling items online, and gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey showed that 54% of respondents reported gambling or playing the lottery regularly, hoping to win money to improve their finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, due to the nature of gambling, this can have adverse effects on their finances and is not a reliable source of income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study from earlier this year found that over half of the surveyed gamblers (57%) reported sacrificing essential household items in the past six months to support their betting activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to the South Africa Gambling Impact Study, which explores the prevalence and social effects of online gambling in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yazi Market Researcher and Founder Timothy Treagus said the study showed that many respondents aimed to double their money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study highlighted that many individuals sacrifice essential items such as food and transportation to fund their bets and often chase losses on the same day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of momentum in this behaviour that needs to actually be carefully calculated on how, as a marketing institution, we can try and reverse some of those behaviours and illuminate some of the problems that it\u2019s causing,\u201d Treagus said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study showed that the financial harm of gambling in South Africa is determined not only by the size of the bets but also by whether the money spent was money kept for essential living expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research reveals that the first expense that gamblers tend to cut is airtime and data, with about 24% to 30% of respondents reporting reduced spending in this area.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this, 9% to 11% of respondents reported sacrificing their grocery budget. Debt repayments are often next on the list, with around 8% to 10% of respondents cutting back on these payments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transport costs, including taxis and fuel, are also affected, as roughly 7% to 8% of respondents reported sacrificing transportation-related expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 4% of respondents reported reducing spending on rent and housing, while about 3% to 4% of respondents reported cutting back on financial support for their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans are spending significant amounts of their salaries on debt repayments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":810290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2112167139943522355","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2242253169928415","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18023623421713256","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[4771,1495,14195,26842],"class_list":["post-880299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-debt","tag-gambling","tag-justmoney","tag-money-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880299","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\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880386,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880299\/revisions\/880386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}