Abstract
This article outlines the findings of Australia’s first large-scale study on the experiences of people who have recently been unable to pay a debt when it fell due. The study builds upon empirical research on the causes and impacts of financial hardship in the United Kingdom and the United States, and examines the coping strategies that debtors employ to deal with their predicament. The study shows that although an overall increase in economic insecurity since the 1980s – together with rising living costs and rapid growth in household debt – have created a situation in which financial hardship can happen to almost anyone, people who are already in a position of socio-economic disadvantage are especially at risk. Debtors at all levels of income favour individualistic strategies for reducing their expenditure – for some, to the point of foregoing essential living needs. However, for debtors on social security incomes, financial hardship has particularly serious consequences, impacting negatively on health, relationships, and social inclusion, and undermining their ability to afford necessities such as food, heating, and medical care. This article undertakes an analysis of these findings in the context of the literature on economic insecurity, disadvantage, and the growing financialization of everyday life in Australia and overseas.
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Notes
This is the definition of “financial hardship” employed in Australia in the context of debt default and payment difficulty (see, e.g., ABA 2015, pp. 1–2). Financial hardship is distinct from the separate problems of poverty and financial stress, even though falling into arrears on mortgage, rent and utility payments has also been used as an indicator for measuring levels of deprivation and financial stress in Australia and overseas (e.g., ABS 2002; Phillips and Nepal 2012; Saunders and Wong 2009; Whelan et al. 2001). Studies on financial hardship in other jurisdictions have also employed other terms, including “debt entanglement,” “debt problems” and “indebtedness” (see the section “Background: Existing Research on Debtors’ Experiences of Financial Hardship”).
Section 72 of the National Credit Code is contained in Schedule 1 of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth). In the energy, water and telecommunications sectors, hardship protections have also been incorporated into a complex patchwork of regulatory codes and legislation, requiring companies to publish and implement hardship policies comprising a minimum range of assistance for customers facing payment difficulties (see, e.g., Communications Alliance Ltd 2015, Clauses 6.11–6.14; National Energy Retail Law (South Australia) Act 2011 (SA), Schedule 1, Sections 43–48, 50; Essential Services Commission 2015, Clauses 33, 71–71B, 72, 72A, 75–76).
Centrelink is a Commonwealth government agency operating under the authority of the Department of Human Services. The main types of social security payments distributed by Centrelink are detailed in footnotes 4 and 13–18, with all payment amounts last updated on 20 September 2017. More information on these payments is available online at Department of Human Services (Cth), Centrelink, https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/dhs/centrelink.
The Newstart Allowance is a payment provided to unemployed people aged between 22 and 65. The maximum fortnightly payments for a Newstart recipient are AUS $538.80 for a single person with no dependents; AUS $582.80 for a single person with dependent children; and AUS $486.50 for each person in a couple. These payment rates do not have a time limit, but are subject to income and asset tests. Recipients of Newstart are subject to activity requirements that may include actively seeking employment or undertaking vocational education or training.
Sullivan et al. (2000) did not actually articulate a clear definition of the “middle class,” describing it as “a function of many characteristics” (p. 28) such as having a level of education and occupational prestige that were at least equivalent to that of the general population (pp. 53, 56–57); having an income comparable to the median family income for the American population (p. 61); and home ownership, “the ultimate symbol of middle-class security” (p. 201). In a more recent analysis of trends in Australian personal insolvency, Ramsay and Sim (2010) took a similar approach, demonstrating the increased prevalence of personal insolvency among middle class Australians. Noting that the concept of the “middle class” was “not readily quantifiable” (Ramsay and Sim 2010, p. 291), they measured membership of the middle class by reference to factors that “might commonly be perceived to represent middle class Australians” (p. 284), including belonging to a higher prestige occupational group; having realisable assets; and home ownership. Rising levels of personal and household income were also included as a factor that “might play a role in class status” (Ramsay and Sim 2010, p. 293).
This article does not seek to measure the proportion of Australians in financial hardship who belong to any particular social class. However, the article does refer to a number of markers of social and economic capital that have been recognized by earlier studies as indicators of belonging to the middle class, including debtors having completed some form of tertiary education, or living in a home that they own (see, e.g., Ramsay and Sim 2010; Sullivan et al. 2000). Another indicator referred to in this article is having a personal income that is higher than the median income for the Australian population as a whole.
These eligibility criteria focused on the recent experience of arrears, as the survey formed part of a broader research project that aimed to explore the dimensions of financial hardship in Australia, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing legal protections for Australians in financial hardship. These eligibility criteria allowed the survey to investigate the experiences of people who had recently fallen behind with any of the broad range of debts to which such protections applied. By way of comparison, the UK and US studies outlined in the section “Background: Existing Research on Debtors’ Experiences of Financial Hardship” also encompassed a broad range of debt, rather than any particular type of arrears. For example, Berthoud and Kempson (1992) and later Kempson (2002) sampled the population generally, surveying heads of households in randomly selected districts across the UK, with additional questions for those who admitted to having fallen into arrears with any of their household commitments in the past year. Other studies targeted narrower segments of the population, such as people who had not only fallen into arrears, but had default judgments entered against them in the courts (Adler and Wozniak 1981; Caplovitz 1974); or heads of households whose income fell below a certain threshold (Dearden et al. 2010; Tach and Greene 2014).
The remainder of the sample (n = 219, or 19.9%) were neither “Centrelink recipients” nor “wage recipients.” These respondents comprised those who received both wages paid by an employer and a Centrelink payment (n = 76, or 6.9%); and those whose income came entirely from other sources including commissions or bonuses, earnings from their own business, redundancy payments, savings in a bank account, rent from an investment property, and superannuation (n = 143, or 13.0%).
The study also investigated the differences between a wide range of other sub-groups, such as respondents who had experienced physical health problems in the 12 months before their debt problems began and those who had not; respondents who were born in Australia and those who were born overseas; and respondents who had a university degree and those who did not. However, in this article, the results of this analysis are only discussed where membership of the sub-group had a significant impact on respondents’ socio-economic circumstances and their experiences of financial hardship.
The proportions of “urban” and “rural or regional” respondents were measured by classifying their postcodes in accordance with the Australian Statistical Geography Standard Remoteness Structure – a geographical classification developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (“ABS”) – which divides Australia into five geographic regions based on the measurement of road distances to service centres. The category “urban” comprises only those postcodes that fall into the statistical divisions of all Australian capital cities, as well as the other “Major Cities of Australia,” which are Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Geelong, and Cairns. Meanwhile, the category “rural” includes areas classified by the ABS as “Inner Regional Australia” and “Outer Regional Australia,” as well as “Remote Australia” and “Very Remote Australia.”
Year 12 is the final year of secondary school in Australia.
In Australia, “TAFE” courses comprise a range of vocational tertiary education courses provided by colleges or institutes that are owned and operated by the state and territory governments.
The Disability Support Pension is a payment provided to people aged between 16 and 65, who have a permanent intellectual, physical, or psychiatric condition that limits their capacity to undertake employment. The maximum fortnightly payments for a Disability Support Pension recipient are AUS $808.30 for a single person; and AUS $609.30 for each person in a couple.
The Age Pension is a payment provided to people aged over 65 years and 6 months (with the pension age due to go up to 67 by 1 July 2023). The maximum fortnightly payments for an Age Pension recipient are AUS $814.00 for a single person; and AUS $613.60 for each person in a couple.
The Family Tax Benefit comprises two types of payment provided to families with at least one dependent child aged under 20 years. The first of these is Family Tax Benefit Part A, which is paid per child, and the second is Family Tax Benefit Part B, which is paid per family and is provided only to single parents and families with one main income.
The Carer Payment is a form of income support for people giving constant care, in a private home, to another person due to a severe disability, illness, or old age. The maximum fortnightly payments for a Carer Payment recipient are AUS $814.00 for a single person; and AUS $613.30 for each person in a couple.
The Parenting Payment is a payment provided to the principal carer of children aged six and under (for partnered parents) or eight and under (for single parents). The maximum fortnightly payments for a Parenting Payment recipient are AUS $752.60 for a single parent; and AUS $486.50 for each person in a couple.
The Widow Allowance is a payment provided to women born on or before 1 July 1955, with no recent workforce experience, who have become widowed, divorced or separated since turning 40. The maximum fortnightly payments for a Widow Allowance recipient are AUS $538.80 for a single person with no dependents; and AUS $582.80 for a single person with dependent children. Austudy is a payment provided to people aged 25 or over who are studying full-time or undertaking a full-time apprenticeship or traineeship. The maximum fortnightly payments for an Austudy recipient are AUS $437.50 for a single person with no dependents; AUS $573.30 for a single person with dependent children; AUS $437.50 for each person in a couple with no dependents; and AUS $480.50 for each person in a couple with dependent children.
This difference is statistically significant at the 0.01 level (chi-square test).
In Australia, “council rates” are a form of taxation collected from property owners by local governments or councils to fund infrastructure and services. The amount payable by each property owner is calculated on the basis of the value of their property.
As explained in the section “Methods,” these 550 respondents were those who had indicated that their debt problems began less than two years ago.
This difference is statistically significant at the 0.01 level (chi-square test).
As explained in the section “Methods,” these 550 respondents were those who had indicated that their debt problems began less than two years ago.
This difference is statistically significant at the 0.01 level (chi-square test).
The following differences are all statistically significant at the 0.01 level (chi-square test).
The following differences are all statistically significant at the 0.01 level (chi-square test).
In Australia, financial counsellors are an important source of advocacy and advice for people experiencing debt problems. Financial counsellors are employed mostly by not-for-profit organizations, and provide their services free of charge. Community legal centres are another source of free advice for debtors.
In Australia, the CPI is produced by the ABS to provide a measure of inflation in the price paid by households for a fixed basket of goods and services. It is a controversial measure of the cost of living, because not all of these goods and services are part of the expenditure of households on low incomes, and some of them (e.g., clothing, footwear, and household appliances) have experienced much lower or negative price inflation over the last two decades (Phillips et al. 2012, pp. 7–8).
See footnotes 4 and 13–18.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments. The authors also thank Dr. Malcolm Anderson for his statistical analysis of the data in this article.
Funding
This research is supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DP140101031).
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Bourova, E., Ramsay, I. & Ali, P. The Experience of Financial Hardship in Australia: Causes, Impacts and Coping Strategies. J Consum Policy 42, 189–221 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-018-9392-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-018-9392-1