Toowoomba Hub: Toowoomba families struggle to make ends meet

ALMOST 40% of Toowoomba's householders are struggling to make ends meet as high rents and rising utility bills hit hard.

A special APN investigation found 59,589, or 37% of families in the Toowoomba council area were unable to raise $2000 cash in a week to cover a crisis.

Of the area's 160,251 residents, 26,688 have had cash flow problems in the past 12 months.

University of Adelaide figures reveal 36,968 people relied on government incomes to survive over the past two years.

Toowoomba Salvation Army Major Kevin Holland said the statistics didn't surprise him and seemed consistent with what he'd seen.

He said there were all sorts of reasons why people found themselves in hard times

"Some professional people may have had a downturn in financial arrangements and lost income, or the breadwinner in the family may have died," Major Holland said.

"Other people struggling actually have jobs but are just under-employed."

Major Holland said sections of the community had an attitude of resignation and had given up on Christmas.

He said people reacted in three general ways to financial stress, categorising them as victims, survivors and enterprising people.

"Victims can never see their way forward and they will move into a lifestyle of blaming because they don't know how to get out of it," Major Holland said.

"Then you have your survivor, who gets very streetwise and takes a bit of responsibility for things.

"They will get stuck into their problems and make the most of it.

"Survivors live from week to week, but it's not hard for them to go into the victim world if something goes wrong.

"Finally you have enterprising people who have developed skills of saving and scrimping.

"They will eat baked beans every day to make sure they have a bank balance and will use all the resources available to get through."

Simple solutions to help save money

St Vincent de Paul Society National Council chief Dr John Falzon said some residents were taking drastic measures to cut costs.

"We've recently seen huge increases in the costs of gas so many of the homes our members visit have people huddled together freezing in the dead winter, unable to afford heating, and we find people going to bed early so as to conserve electricity," Dr Falzon said.

"People are even reducing the number of times they'll use the stove top because they're worried about the cost."

Low income support specialist Maree O'Halloran said people in areas like Toowoomba went without fresh food and medications just to pay the rent.

"What we see is a lot of debt," the National Welfare Rights Network president said.

"It certainly needs all levels of government to be looking at their policies."

The figures come on the back of national consumer advocate Choice's latest Pulse Report, which says nine out of 10 householders have higher bills compared to last year.

- APN NEWSDESK

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