Fair Go for FiftyUps Campaign: The bills we love to hate
No one looks forward to paying household bills but almost 60% of FiftyUps suffer stress doing so, with up to 15% of those describing the pain as extreme or high.
A mighty 15,000 have so far answered the Fair Go For FiftyUps campaign opening up on the pressure of payments, the bills we love to hate and the sacrifices made to pay them.
Private health insurance stood out by a country mile as the hardest regular bill to meet and, worryingly, the key sacrifice to pay all bills was to dip into their savings.
Queenslanders reported the highest levels of hardship with 14% rating their levels of difficulty meeting bills as either extreme or high. In NSW the figure was 10.9%.
Around 45% of others in both states, where the bulk of our respondents live, said they suffered mild bill stress and sometimes had trouble with bills.
Adding together those suffering mild, extreme and high stress and the total reaches about 60%. As usual your comments paint a picture as telling as any bald statistics.
Take Shirley from NSW ‘Pension doesn’t cover bills I can’t get work so have to dip into super.’ Or Philip in Qld ‘Due to older age my partner has list her job and now unemployable therefore we are over borrowed’.
While cost of living pressures often focus on petrol, groceries and mortgages you listed these costs last amongst a list of the hardest to pay.
The most difficult to pay according to 30% of respondents was private health insurance followed by electricity at 23%, council rates at 13% and then home and car insurance.
As Linda from NSW commented, ‘ Health fund is higher than my weekly food bill and house insurance, car insurance and 10 times what we eat’.
At the very end came internet bills, perhaps a favourite complaint amongst the download demons, but only listed as hard to pay by less than one per cent of you.
Clearly with so much stress out there people have to develop strategies to pay up. When asked to list the sacrifices you took to meet bills 29% resorted to dipping into savings.
That’s a fair drain on funds which might have been set aside for longer term retirement goals instead of shorter term insurance and utilities needs.
Another 9% cut back on essentials such as food or heating, 8% going into credit card debt, 7% working more and 6% cancelling holiday.
There’s still time to make your voice heard on this important debate.
Older Australians are invited to make their voice heard by sharing their responses to the #FairGoForFiftyUp campaign questions at www.fiftyupclub.com .
The final survey results will be packaged up and delivered to key decision makers in Canberra to try and get some actions and answers on how to relieve and reduce bill stress.
