Mounting debt ‘crippling’ middle-class
A debt solutions group says that the average middle-class worker in South Africa spends more than 60% of their salary paying off debt.
It's been reflecting on its first-quarter debt index for 2021.
Councillors say more and more people have been seeking help to manage their debt.
The number of those needing assistance climbed by 31%, compared to the same period last year.
Benay Sager, who's with DebtBusters, says more consumers are becoming pro-active about their finances.
Most of those seeking help are men.
"Men don't really talk about financial matters, particularly debt.
"Over the last three quarters or so, we have seen a significant shift where it used to be a higher percentage of applicants would be women and now we are seeing 56 percentage men.
"We attribute this to the fact that men are more knowledgeable now about debt counselling than they were before. Secondly, they are trying to intervene before the situation gets worse."
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