The QUT Centre for Justice has released a special edition of its Briefing Paper Series examining how financial pressure, credit use and debt-related risks intensify for individuals, families and small businesses during the holiday season.
Led by QUT Centre for Justice researcher Dr Amanda Bull, from the School of Law, the seven-paper series brings together legal, social and economic research to explore the real-world impacts of consumer credit, insolvency and financial hardship at a time when spending peaks and financial resilience is often stretched.
"Christmas is often portrayed as a moment of joy, but it can also expose and deepen existing financial stress," Dr Bull said.
"For many households and small businesses, credit becomes a way to cope and that reliance can have serious consequences well into the new year."
While each paper focuses on a distinct area of consumer credit and financial distress, Dr Bull said the series shares several key themes:
- Financial inclusion versus consumer protection: All papers highlight the tension between making credit accessible and ensuring safeguards against harm, particularly for vulnerable groups.
- Systemic barriers amplify vulnerability: Cultural, linguistic and informational gaps, combined with complex regulatory frameworks, leave many consumers ill-equipped to navigate financial systems, increasing risks of debt stress and exploitation.
- Regulatory frameworks under pressure: From buy now, pay later reforms to hardship provisions, the research points to evolving laws that aim to address emerging risks but often fall short in practice, requiring stronger enforcement and proactive measures.
- Digitisation and behavioural impacts: The shift to frictionless credit and digital payment creates psychological disconnects, encouraging overspending and complicating financial self-management, especially for younger and CALD customers.
- Continuum of solutions needed: Authors consistently call for integrated responses, combining education, hardship assistance and insolvency options, to provide sustainable pathways for consumers facing both short-term shocks and entrenched financial distress.
Among the QUT-authored papers is No New Home for Christmas, which examines Australia's residential construction insolvency crisis and its impact on consumers hoping to have homes built by the festive season.
Other papers explore the role of community finance models in promoting financial justice, reforms to financial hardship protections in consumer credit law, and the financial experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse young adults navigating complex systems often filled with technical jargon.
"Many of these pressures don't exist in isolation," Dr Bull said.
"A young person struggling to understand financial products, a family dealing with post-Christmas debt, or a small business managing seasonal cash-flow volatility are all operating within systems that were not designed with their lived experience in mind."
The QUT Centre for Justice Consumer Credit Briefing Paper Series is available online:
Improving financial hardship protections in consumer credit: processes, outcomes and options by Dr Nicola Howell
Revisiting community finance: lessons from socio-solidarity economies to promote financial justice by Dr Denise Gibran Nogueira
No new home for Christmas: Consumers and Australia's residential construction insolvency crisis by Dr Lyndall Bryant, Dr Elizabeth Streten, Dr Amanda Bull, Morgan O'Neill, and Dr Fiona Cheung
Seasonal Financial Distress – Not just a tough time for consumers by Dr Amanda Bull and Michael Murray
Finance should be simple not stressful: The financial experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse young adults in Australia by Dr Laura de Zwaan, Adjunct Professor Deanna Grant Smith and Associate Professor Elisabeth Sinnewe
Project Daffodil: Building emotional financial literacy to reduce homelessness risks in older women by Alice Brennan (Practitioner paper)
Regulating buy-now-pay-later under Australia's consumer credit laws: A new era for 'new money' by Dr Lucinda O'Brien (The University of Melbourne)
Main photo: SolStock/Getty Images
