The creeping danger of Australian households’ love affair with credit

Sydney : David and Hannah were raising their baby son in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, enjoying a comfortable lifestyle supported by David’s job as the manager of the city flagship store of a well-known clothing chain when their cozy existence began to unravel.Hannah became ill and could not work, leaving David struggling to cope with the demands of being the sole breadwinner.”I felt like I had to make a certain amount of money to fit in and that pressure is pretty hard to deal with,” he said. “Because Sydney is so expensive my focus … became about money.”He would go on shopping sprees, buying items the family couldn’t afford and soon they became part of a growing group of NSW households that spend more than they earn.
David shared his story in a study released by the Wesley Mission last week to shed light on the increasing number of households which are technically insolvent or in financial stress.