Majority of South Africans commit over 40 percent of wages to debt repayment

South Africans are handing over more than half their paychecks to lenders, and the numbers are getting worse. A majority of survey respondents now dedicates over 40 percent of their take-home pay to debt repayment, according to DebtBusters’ latest annual money-stress tracker survey of 18,000 respondents, a figure that reflects how deeply the cost-of-living crisis has cut into household finances across the country.

The scale of the strain is hard to overstate. Fifty-three percent of respondents spend more than 40 percent of their after-tax income servicing debt, up from 48 percent the previous year. Thirty-five percent now allocate 50 percent or more of their take-home pay to debt repayment. Only one in three respondents stays below the 30 percent threshold that financial advisors consider sustainable.

DebtBusters CEO Benay Sagar named the 40 percent mark as the critical line. “At the worst we do not want that number to be more than 40 percent. Anything beyond that is not sustainable,” he said. The ideal benchmark, he added, remains 30 percent of take-home pay dedicated to debt obligations, including home loans.

Essentials are driving people into borrowing. Rising fuel, electricity and food costs have forced households to turn to personal loans and credit lines just to cover basic needs. Sagar noted that people are borrowing to meet immediate obligations for dependents and survival, with little capacity left for anything else. The full extent of reliance on buy-now-pay-later products remains unclear because credit bureaus do not track these transactions, but the trend points to a deepening dependence on short-term borrowing to bridge the gap between income and expenses.

The source of financial anxiety has shifted across the five years since the survey began. High inflation dominated concerns in 2022, followed by interest rates in 2023 and debt levels in 2024. A brief stabilisation appeared in 2025, but 2026 has brought the cost of living back to the forefront. What remains constant, Sagar observed, is that immediate survival needs crowd out any possibility of long-term financial planning for the majority of South Africans.

The psychological toll is accumulating alongside the financial one. Psychologist Dr Andrea Kellerman reported that financial stress levels have risen from 70 percent to 72 percent overall. The deeper concern, she said, is how chronic pressure is reshaping family life. The home, traditionally a refuge, has become another source of tension as accumulated stress depletes people’s ability to make decisions and think clearly. Energy that might go toward problem-solving instead flows into managing conflict, with family members absorbing the strain.

The feeling of being stuck has sharpened. This year 34 percent of respondents reported feeling trapped, up from 29 percent in each of the previous two years. Kellerman described a shift from temporary financial stress to chronic psychological pressure, with elevated cortisol and adrenaline levels pushing people toward burnout.

Nosiphiwo Nxawe, senior collections manager at DebtBusters, highlighted how precarious daily life has become. Concerns about inflation and living costs increased by 28 percent in the survey. Worries about electricity costs alone doubled from the previous year. People are no longer simply anxious about debt; they fear running out of money before month-end, struggle to meet monthly obligations and dread unexpected expenses.

Younger people and women carry a disproportionate share of the pressure. Those aged 25 to 34 report the highest financial stress of any age group, while women overall express 15 percent more worry about their financial situation than men.

Many South Africans are not standing still. Thirty-four percent are searching for better-paying employment, up from 26 percent in 2022, though down from a peak of 38 percent in 2023. Others are selling items online, growing or making goods for sale, renting out space or asking family for help. Some have turned to online gambling in hopes of generating additional income. One in seven respondents, though, has stopped trying altogether, seeing no point in further effort.

The main barrier to action is the feeling of being trapped, particularly among younger adults. Those aged 45 to 54 cite distrust of available help, with 31 percent unsure who to turn to. Kellerman emphasized that when people feel overwhelmed, they lose sight of solutions, and that regaining a sense of control is the strongest protective factor against chronic stress.

By contrast, attitudes toward debt counselling are shifting in a more encouraging direction. Negative sentiment toward counselling has dropped 24 percentage points over three years, falling from 49 percent in 2023 to 36 percent this year. Whether that growing openness translates into households actually accessing help, and stabilizing their finances before the pressure becomes irreversible, remains the question that 2026 has yet to answer.