For a decade, Dave Harris has been helping people manage their debts for free, but in the past 18 months the number of people needing help has escalated and he says all budgeting services across the region are stretched.
As a CAP (Christians Against Poverty) debt coach for the Hope Community Church, he manages people’s debts when they cannot see a way of getting out of debt themselves, and helps them with budgeting.
“It takes the pressure off because they don’t need to negotiate with their creditors. If you are someone like a solo mum, you don’t have to worry about dealing with your creditors and you can just focus on being a good parent.”
CAP works out how much a client can pay each week and uses that amount to manage their debt over time. He says on average it takes three years for a client to become debt-free. Nelson-Tasman CAP is now celebrating a milestone of helping 50 households become debt-free in the past decade.
Dave says the increased cost of living and ongoing increases are the main drivers behind the higher numbers of people seeking help, which he says is not helped by the region’s “sunshine wages” and “phenomenal high rents”. He says it is not uncommon for his clients to be paying 50 to 60 per cent of their income on rent.
About 60 per cent of his clients are beneficiaries and 40 per cent are either partly or fully employed. Most are renting, although he began to see more people with mortgages last year as interest rates rose. Many of his clients have been using credit cards to buy essentials and that becomes a debt they cannot pay off.
Compared with 10 years ago, Dave says more clients have anxiety issues now and he suggests one of the reasons is the increasingly independent living in society as people work by themselves at home and often socialise mainly through social media. He says there is nothing better than people getting together with other people and having a chat to ease the stress.
Figures produced by economic consultancy Infometrics show the average household income in Tasman in 2023 was 107,940, while Nelson was 99,717 compared with the national figure of 132,458.
At the same time, the average rent in Tasman and Nelson was 25.3 per cent and 24.9 per cent respectively of the average income. Mortgage payments averaged 53.1 per cent proportion of household income in Tasman and 55.8 per cent in Nelson. That compared with 22 per cent nationally.
Beneficiary numbers in Tasman have climbed eight per cent to 2,991 this year, while in Nelson they have risen three per cent to 3,494.
