South Africans are using an increasingly larger share of their take-home pay to service debt, and a growing portion have debt obligations that are considered “unsustainable”.
The DebtBuster annual money-stress tracker survey results show that debt repayment pressure has worsened sharply, with 53% of respondents now spending more than 40% of their take-home pay on debt repayments (up from 48% last year).
According to DebtBuster CEO Benay Sagar this is the figure they are most worried about. The ideal is not to spend more than 30% of take-home payment on debt, including a home loan.
Only 33% of 18 000 respondents spend below 30% of their after-tax income on debt repayment. “At the worst we do not want that number to be more than 40%. Anything beyond that is not sustainable,” says Sagar.
Currently 35% of the respondents spend 50% or more on debt repayments.
Rising fuel, electricity and food costs have seen the cost-of-living crisis spiral. People are taking out personal loans in order to pay for essential expenses, says Sagar.
He notes that it is hard to detect how much of the debt relates to “buy-now-pay-later” products as this is not tracked by credit bureaus.
“But generally, the credit lines that are being tapped are basically for necessities, often for kids and other dependents first and last for self.”
Shifting contributors to financial anxiety
The dominant source of anxiety has shifted over the five years since DebtBusters started its survey.
It was generally attributed to:
High inflation in 2022;
Interest rates in 2023;
Debt levels in 2024;
A brief stabilisation in 2025; and now the cost of living in 2026.
“What has remained constant is that short-term financial survival crowds out longer-term planning for a large majority of South Africans,” says Sagar.
Psychologist Dr Andrea Kellerman says although overall financial stress levels have gone slightly up from 70% to 72%, the survey exposes some other alarming factors.
One of them is that the home is no longer the safe space.
“That accumulated stress that we have tracked over the past five years has now depleted people’s ability to make decisions, to think out of the box, and energy goes more and more into conflict-management, with family members having to absorb the stress.”
Feeling stuck
Kellerman notes that the feeling of being stuck has gone up from 29% the previous two years to 34% this year.
“People feel discouraged, their cortisol and adrenalin levels are up and people enter the burn-out space … We have moved from temporary financial stress to chronic psychological pressure.”
People need destressing tools to assist with better communication, and better sleeping habits to destress better. Once the brain settles down it becomes more resilient and better able to see opportunities.
Growing pressure
Nosiphiwo Nxawe, senior collections manager at DebtBusters, says from the survey it is clear that many South Africans are living from one pay day to the next.
The cost-of-living crisis is reflected in the survey results, with concerns relating to inflation and living costs increasing by 28%.
Concerns about rising electricity costs have doubled from last year.
People are not only worried about debt anymore. Consumers are concerned about running out of money before the end of the month, being able to pay monthly debt and unexpected expenses. “Everyday life has become more expensive,” says Nxawe.
Although all age groups are affected, it is particularly younger people who are feeling the biggest financial stress.