Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

05 February 2026

2-minute read

A decade of rising living costs, payday loans, and online gambling have seen South Africans using 71% of their salary towards debt payment.

Executive head of Debt Busters, Benay Sager, says that despite confidence amongst consumers being on the rise, the number of people who need help through debt counselling is also increasing.

With 47% less spending power than 2016, salary increases that have not kept up, a significant rise in the cost-of-living expenses like rates, water and electricity, and no improvement in the tax bracket, we are “squeezing from both ends,” states Sager, and are officially working harder to live lesser lives.

59% of people who apply for debt counselling are those taking out personal one-month or payday loans. Sager reiterates that when short-term loans become a lifestyle, we are facing an acute type of debt-stress that shows expenditure being higher than income. “Large portions of the population really need the cash to keep up with the necessities.”

Post-COVID, most lending happened to higher earners who were thought to be lower risk, which is why the “debt pile of this group has accumulated much faster than any other group,” says Sager.

Another big issue is gambling that is now visible and available everywhere, and which, strangely, some believe to be a form of social income. “In the long term, no-one makes money off gambling.” Sager says that they hope that there will be “some serious intervention” with the way that gambling is being advertised as a “glamorous lifestyle” to curb this pandemic that South Africans are facing.