People are increasingly using credit to buy food, with increases in the price of food and other everyday essentials and rising unemployment fuelling this trend.
Debt doesn't stay neatly confined to a person's bank account; for employees under financial pressure, the worry can follow them into the workplace, affecting concentration, motivation, sleep and – ultimately – their ability to perform.
In fact, the Sanlam Benchmark 2024 shows that 50% of retirement fund participants have cashed in all their retirement funds at some point, with only about 6% of South Africans on track to retire comfortably.
More than 2.4 million South Africans have already withdrawn from their retirement savings since the two-pot system went live in September 2024, with as much as 80% of those withdrawals going to debt repayments and essential living costs, the report found.
Alex Cook, CEO of fintech company Wealthbit, said debt often develops gradually rather than through one major financial mistake. “Often it starts with small gaps in someone’s financial system. There is no emergency buffer.
