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-$1,000pw | Income $1,000-$1,600 pw | Income $1,600+ pw | Oct 2014 | |||
| I don’t have enough money for basic essentials like housing food and electricity | 8% | 5% | 11% | 20% | 8% | 6% | 4% | 7% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials but I cannot save any money | 39% | 37% | 37% | 51% | 44% | 36% | 34% | 35% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a little money | 44% | 46% | 45% | 27% | 43% | 49% | 50% | 47% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a lot of money | 7% | 10% | 5% | 2% | 3% | 8% | 11% | 8% | ||
| Don’t know | 2% | 2% | 2% | – | 2% | 1% | 1% | 4% |
44% say they have enough money for basic essentials and can save a little money and 39% say they have enough money for basic essentials but cannot save any money. Only 7% say they can save a lot of money.
Only 29% of those earning less than $600 pw say they can save any money – compared to 61% of those earning over $1,600 pw.
Overall, there has been a slight worsening in financial situations since this question was asked in October – 47% (up 5%) say they cannot save any money and 51% (down 4%) say they can.