Skipping meals and GP appointments: The harsh reality for young people leaving home

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Like many young people, Sarah Cupitt is surviving the cost-of-living crisis by skipping meals and delaying medical treatment.

The 21-year-old used to live in a share house in Parramatta, but moved out to the Lower Blue Mountains to afford a place on her own.

Sarah Cupitt, 21, is making sacrifices to live on her own.Credit: Steven Siewert

“Living alone is a time bomb, it’s not sustainable the way the economy is heading,” Cupitt said.

“Everyone is being forced to economise on housing in some way – either living with strangers, which has its own risk, especially if you’re female, or moving really far away from where you work.”

The 2021 census counts about 955,000 people aged 15 to 24 in NSW. Most live with their parents or carers and sometimes pay board, but more than 221,000 live independently.

Across NSW, 11 per cent of 18-19 year-olds and 39 per cent of 20-24 year-olds live independently.

Cupitt is one of about 24,000 young people living alone across NSW. There are also roughly 59,000 living in a group household, and 76,000 with a partner or spouse. Another 7400 are single parents.

The NSW Advocate for Children and Young people, Zoe Robinson, said young people’s voices were often missing from the cost-of-living debate, despite the fact they had to survive on less money.

She said young people were usually employed in casual jobs, often on minimum wage, and faced rising fees for their education, as well as inflated costs for rent, power and groceries.

“Young people are being forced into choices in terms of where they live, what they eat, how they get employment and what that employment looks like,” Robinson said.

“They should have a choice about whether to study, not have to give it up to pay for their rent and bills.”

Cupitt, 21, budgets $20-30 a week for food.Credit: Steven Siewert

The advocate commissioned a representative survey of more than a thousand 10-24 year-olds across the state, which suggests that 43 per cent of young people who live independently are facing financial difficulty. This compared with 34 per cent of 10-24 year-olds living as dependents at home.

About one in three young people living independently ate smaller meals or skipped meals to reduce spending on groceries, and 30 per cent did not seek medical services.

One in three tertiary students and 8 per cent of school students had put off buying essential supplies needed for their education.

Cupitt grew up poor, with support from the Smith Family. She paid board to her mother once she finished school, before moving out at 18.

She lived on youth allowance and part-time jobs at university, making the dean’s list for academic achievement, and then took a corporate job. She quit after suffering a mini-stroke and heart palpitations last year, and is now freelancing.

Cupitt rents a studio flat for $375 a week, uses public transport, and budgets $30 a week for food, relying heavily on soups and muesli bars when 50 per cent off. A recent day of meals was three muesli bars and four pieces of toast with raspberry jelly.

After paying for extensive medical tests last year, and then surgery on her wisdom teeth, Cupitt is avoiding routine visits to the doctor.

Kieran Sorensen with housemates Jack Nethery, Michael De Zilva, and Connor Hirst.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The challenges are familiar to Jack Nethery, Connor Hirst, Mike De Zilva and Kieran Sorensen, housemates in Redfern who met in the residential colleges at the University of NSW.

“Every other month I hear about a friend in Sydney who is struggling to find rent or their rent is getting put up, and they’re having to move further away from their work,” Hirst said.

All four are university students, but not all qualify for youth allowance. One is from Western Sydney, one is from interstate, and two are from regional NSW.

When the friends decided to move out of the colleges, it took several months to find a rental property.

Hirst said they found a place by fine-tuning their application, calling real estate agents every day, accepting the reality of rent-bidding, where tenants offer to pay more than the advertised price, and increasing their budget to $1300 a week.

The four housemates recently moved out of college accommodation and are now living in Redfern.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

They budgeted correctly for food and most bills but were caught out by the electricity company estimating the power usage, meaning low initial bills were followed by a spike after the meter reading.

Nethery said they spent a month scouring websites for bargains and giveaways to furnish the house.

“For the first few weeks we didn’t have chairs around our dining table, so every time we ate it felt like we were judging MasterChef because you would walk up to the plate, take a few bites, and walk away,” he said.

Nethery, 23, is from Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast and in his fourth year of a medicine degree.

Nethery works part time in a GP’s office but nearly lost his income because of compulsory lab work for his degree. His parents help him financially when needed.

Hirst, 21, is from the Sunshine Coast. He does not qualify for youth allowance because it is means-tested on his family’s income, but nor can his parents afford to support him.

He got through his first degree with part-time jobs, but has just started a postgraduate medicine degree. That keeps him occupied nearly full time, so he is living off savings while trying to start an online business.

Hirst said he is good at finding a bargain with food, but he has skimped on medical care.

“Going around Sydney finding a place that’s bulk-billed for going to the doctor is nearly impossible now and paying private prices [for the GP], or going to the physio, is not really an option,” Hirst said.

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