Story on Report “Poor caught in debt spiral” misleads readers

  2011. Sept 30     HERALD SUN - Letter to the Editor

The “Caught Short” report issued last Friday (September 23) by RMIT University and University of Queensland highlighted the difficult financial conditions faced by vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians.

But your story on the report “Poor caught in debt spiral” on September 23 misleads your readers on a number of counts.   You suggest that the sad stories in the report of Australians caught in a debt spiral and living in poverty are somehow typical of hundreds of thousands of people that use short-term loans when the reverse is in fact the case.

The vast majority of consumers that take out short-term loans are neither disadvantaged nor vulnerable ....