Andrew Dickens: What can we do to ease debt and the cost of living?

Household budgets remain under pressure from rising costs, a credit expert says. 

Centrix’s latest credit indicator shows consumer arrears fell by 7,000 in June to 478,000, representing 12.36% of the credit-active population. 

But Centrix managing director Keith McLaughlin said there has been an increase in pressure on household budgets: “The slight year-on-year improvement in arrears we’ve observed so far this year has plateaued … and that just seems to be sticky." 

“Consumers have cut back on discretionary spending … and were managing their non-discretionary [spending] quite nicely." 

But he says there's a flow through of the increase in things like insurance and rates. 79% of mortgages due to be repriced over the next 12 months, many borrowers may benefit from lower rates. 

Increases in rates, insurance, and power does make it very hard to get the benefit out of those reductions in interest rates. 

Looking for the positive, the number of accounts reported in financial hardship in June was 14,450, down 550 from the prior month, Centrix said. 

But year on year, financial hardships increased 7.1%. 

We've plateaued in an uncomfortable place, so the question is what could we do to make things better? 

Insurance is off the table and councils have had the hard word to decrease rates, but what else is there? 

My family rarely buys takeaway coffees these days, but I fear all I'm doing is hurting small businesses. We've had an audit of streaming and subscription services, but that means we have less news sources in the house and less entertainment. 

I bought an EV 18 months ago and that has radically lessened my petrol bill, even with the road user charges. There's any number of household hacks to stretch the household budget, but what can we do as a country? 

Australia has just written off $16 billion in student loans. Albanese says getting an education shouldn't mean a lifetime of debt. Paying off student loans does curtail the young, which is why they're buying houses and starting families later and later. 

Is that something we could do here? If not a full amnesty, then perhaps some partial easement that makes things easier. 

My 29 year old son is just two pay packets away from wiping off his student debt from two degrees in environmental management, which is what he does for a job. He's counting down to liberation day and to finally have money to invest in his future rather than his past. 

Now we're poor compared to Australia, and governments are dependent on the repaying of that debt to fund the country, and the liability is viewed as a positive on our balance sheet.  But it's mythical money – could this help the young trying to start the sort of lives that previous generations who had no debt enjoyed? 

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