Gloria Taylor was left bereft by the death of her husband Ken last year but adding to her despair was a debt accumulated when she and her cancer-stricken husband were unable to work.
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"When Ken became ill we both had to give up our jobs," she said. "He was undergoing treatment and I had to stop work to care for him."
The Taylors' household is one of more than a million NSW households who spend more than they earn, with a new report showing alarming rates of financial stress as people struggle to pay for basic items such as food and utilities.
The report, commissioned by the Wesley Mission, showed 38 per cent of NSW households are insolvent with their expenses outstripping their income.
It found that 44 per cent of households are in financial stress, which includes being unable to pay bills on time, afford medical treatment or home maintenance and going without meals.
Wesley Mission chief executive Keith Garner said the number of struggling households was increasing, with women and aged pensioners particularly vulnerable.
"The ability for people to meet unexpected bills is becoming more and more challenging, especially for certain groups of people," he said.
"Anybody who has no capacity to draw on other reserves is going to find living in a modern day Australia very difficult indeed."
He expressed concern that low income earners were increasingly relying on payday lenders to afford basic items.
"The gap is being filled by the more dubious end of the financial market, in other words payday lenders," he said.
"They don't rate very highly in my estimation. That's the group which is picking up that gap and it's quite worrying."
The report, Facing Financial Stress, called on the state government to review the requirements for financial advice and provide more support for community-run financial counselling services.
Rev Dr Garner said financial stress affected physical and mental health with the report showing links to anxiety, homelessness, addiction and domestic violence.
Mrs Taylor, 66, said: "We had always been so good at paying our bills on time when we were both working. Unfortunately, we continued to spend as if we still had jobs plus we had added medical expenses. We just fell into this trap and started living off the credit cards."
She said she ended up with a debt of $6000 and creditors threatening to repossess her car, which she needs to transport her 87-year-old mother who has suffers poor eyesight.
"There were suggestions of bankruptcy because I owed $6000 - $3500 to one company, $2500 to another," she said. "It might not sound like much but it seemed huge to me because I felt I had no hope of paying it back.
Mrs Taylor sought the help of a financial counsellor at her local community centre who was able to guide her and she is now "gratefully debt-free".
The Wesley report shows that the proportion of people in Mrs Taylor's position is increasing. In 2010, 37 per cent of NSW households were in financial stress; a figure which has increased to 44 per cent in the latest report which surveyed 500 households.
The report also noted a four-fold increase in the proportion of households unable to stick to a budget, rising from five 5 per cent in 2010 to 19 per cent in 2014.