Questions employers ask.
Straight answers on financial stress, absenteeism and staff turnover, each with its source. Figures are quoted as reported and the survey behind each one is named, so you can check it.
How common is financial stress among employees?
How many South African employees are under financial stress?
In Old Mutual's 2026 Savings and Investment Monitor, 40% of working South Africans described themselves as considerably financially stressed, up from 38% a year earlier. Among households earning under R30,000 a month it was 47%, up from 41%.
A separate study, Wealthbit's 2025 Financial Stress Report, found that about four in five South Africans worry about money most of the time, and that 82% say those worries affect their focus, energy and motivation at work.
Is gambling part of the picture?
Old Mutual's 2026 survey of employed South Africans earning R8,000 or more a month found that 53% gamble, and 42% say they gamble frequently in the hope of covering living costs or reducing debt. Reliance was highest among people earning between R8,000 and R15,000 a month.
The share reporting financial difficulty because of gambling rose from 12% in 2025 to 22% in 2026.
Are people dipping into their retirement savings?
Momentum's data shows that among retirement fund members who qualify to make a two-pot withdrawal, 52% had done so. Of what was withdrawn, 44% went to paying off debt and 23% to everyday living expenses.
That is the clearest sign of what is happening in staff households, and it reaches an employer through the retirement fund rather than through HR.
What does it cost an employer?
What does absenteeism cost?
Occupational Care South Africa estimates that absenteeism costs the South African economy between R12 billion and R16 billion a year, and puts it at roughly 15% of employees absent on any given day.
That estimate is quoted widely but dates from about 2014, so treat it as indicative, not current.
What does it cost to replace someone who resigns?
The most-quoted research puts the full cost of replacing an employee at about a third of their annual salary, once recruitment, induction and the months of lower output are counted.
For someone earning R20,000 a month, a third of annual salary is about R80,000.
What does Money-Sense cost in comparison?
R40 per employee per month, excluding VAT. For a company of 50 people that is R2,000 a month, or R24,000 a year.
On an average salary of R20,000 a month, R40 is 0.2% of payroll.
What does Money-Sense actually flag?
At what point is a household's debt a structural problem?
Money-Sense flags a household when debt repayments, meaning the home loan, car and everything else together, pass 40% of take-home pay. Past that line, careful shopping rarely brings the budget back, because the problem is the size of the commitments rather than the discipline of the spender.
From the outside the two cases look the same. Both arrive as a request for an advance.
What does an employer see?
Group totals only: how many staff have registered, how many were active, the take-up rate, which parts of Money-Sense are used most, and how that changes week by week. Any figure based on fewer than ten people is withheld.
An employer never sees who has registered or anything an employee entered.
Surveys differ in who was asked and how. Use these figures as context for a conversation, not as a forecast for your own workforce. Money-Sense is financial education, not financial advice.