Household savings and debts out of balance

The inequality in the distribution of household savings is considerably worse than "the much talked about inequality in incomes," according to a report published yesterday by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre.

Researchers at the Curtin University business school estimated the average household disposable income of the top 20 per cent of savers, and said it was almost four times the average income of the lowest 20 per cent of savers.

However, the savings effort (averaging A$1.3 million) is 200 times that of the bottom 20 per cent (averaging A$6,000).

Or, as Professor Alan Duncan, BCEC director, put it: the top 20 per cent may receive one-third of all income but they own three-quarters of the total value of savings.

Debt has also blown out, the researchers said. "The ratio of average debt to disposable income for low economic resource households has deteriorated over the last few decades. In 1990, the average household debt represented less than six months of income for these households.

"In 2015 it represents one and a half years of household disposable income," Duncan said.

"The trifecta of debts, low (or no) savings and low incomes presents many families with an unenviable challenge to maintain an acceptable quality of life for themselves and their children on a day-to-day basis."

The report also outlines big differences in household savings and debt between the states and territories, and the divide between the city and the country.

Despite increased savings rates, the data shows household debt remains three times higher than it was twenty years ago - and the rate and amount of savings is declining.