Q. Which of the following statements best describes your financial situation?
| Total | Work full time | Work part time | Income less than $600 pw | Income $600-$1,000
pw |
Income $1,000-$1,500 pw | Income $1,500 – $2,000 pw | Income $2,000+ pw | Oct 2014 | Mar 2015 | Feb 2016 | |||
| I don’t have enough money for basic essentials like housing food and electricity | 8% | 6% | 9% | 21% | 7% | 8% | 6% | 4% | 7% | 8% | 6% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials but I cannot save any money | 40% | 35% | 31% | 53% | 46% | 41% | 34% | 28% | 35% | 39% | 35% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a little money | 42% | 45% | 50% | 22% | 40% | 45% | 53% | 48% | 47% | 44% | 49% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a lot of money | 7% | 11% | 7% | 1% | 2% | 4% | 5% | 19% | 8% | 7% | 8% | ||
| Don’t know | 3% | 3% | 4% | 3% | 5% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 4% | 2% | 3% |
42% say they have enough money for basic essentials and can save a little money and 40% say they have enough money for basic essentials but cannot save any money. Only 7% say they can save a lot of money.
Only 23% of those earning less than $600 pw say they can save any money – compared to 67% of those earning over $2,000 pw.
Overall, there has been a slight decline in financial situations since this question was asked in February last year – 48% (up 7%) say they cannot save any money and 49% (down 8%) say they can.