A bill-paying assistance platform has found that about half of its Tasmanian users have struggled to pay their bills on time this year.
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Deferit has found 53 per cent of Tasmanians that sign up for the service say they're paying bills past the due date.
Half of that 53 per cent also stated they would not be able to pay their next bill on time.
Compared to the rest of Australia, Tasmania tied with the ACT and Western Australia for the second-highest percentage of overdue bill payments.
In other news:
The Northern Territory had the highest percentage of sign-up users struggling to pay bills on time with 55 per cent.
TG Financial's Tony Gray said like the Great Depression and 2008 recession, COVID-19 had resulted in a greater propensity for younger generations to save.
"People don't like to have stress about paying bills," he said.
"For those that are young and have been caught short or tightened the belt, they're more likely to save as a result."
We've had such a long period where people have borrowed to spend where we need to go through this tougher period where we put ourselves in a stronger financial position.
- Tony Gray
Mr Gray said previous generations had been trained to use debt as an opportunity to take risks and make investments but end up making a lot money from it.
"The current generation are being trained not to take that risk and I think that's necessary for our country because our savings rate has dropped to such a low level," he said.
Mr Gray added that this increased tendency to save would conflict with the need to spend to stimulate the economy's recovery.
"If enough people across an economy begin to save a bit more and spend less, then the economy's weaker temporarily but it does strengthen the balance sheet of the economy," he said.
"We've had such a long period where people have borrowed to spend where we need to go through this tougher period where we put ourselves in a stronger financial position."
In other news:
Deferit is an Australian operated paid service that helps people manage their bills.
It found that car registration was the most common bill its Tasmanian users paid through the service in 2020 at 5000.
This was followed by telecommunication bills with 3000 users.