Which of the following statements best describes your financial situation?
| Total | Work full time | Work part time | Income less than $600 pw | Income $600-$1,000
pw |
Income $1,000-$1,600 pw | Income $1,600+ pw | Oct 2014 | Mar 2015 | |||
| I don’t have enough money for basic essentials like housing food and electricity | 6% | 4% | 6% | 20% | 8% | 3% | 1% | 7% | 8% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials but I cannot save any money | 35% | 28% | 37% | 49% | 41% | 44% | 24% | 35% | 39% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a little money | 49% | 54% | 49% | 26% | 44% | 51% | 60% | 47% | 44% | ||
| I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a lot of money | 8% | 12% | 5% | 3% | 6% | 2% | 13% | 8% | 7% | ||
| Don’t know | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 15 | 2% | 4% | 2% |
49% say they have enough money for basic essentials and can save a little money and 35% say they have enough money for basic essentials but cannot save any money. Only 8% 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 73% of those earning over $1,600 pw.
Overall, there has been a slight improvement in financial situations since this question was asked in March last year – 41% (down 6%) say they cannot save any money and 57% (up 6%) say they can.