Australian families are being hit with soaring back-to-school costs, according to new research by Finder.
A Finder survey of 1006 respondents, 275 of whom have school aged children, reveals 30% of Australian parents will struggle to afford back-to-school costs this year. That’s an estimated 819,000 households who can’t fund their children’s school requirements including uniforms and stationary supplies.
Sarah Megginson, personal finance expert at Finder and mother-of-three, says thousands of Australian parents aren’t financially prepared for back-to-school costs.
“School essentials can place a huge amount of pressure on the household budget, especially for those still recovering from the expense of Christmas,” she says. “At the start of the year, many family budgets are already stretched thin.”
Finder crunched the numbers and found that school expenses in 2026 are expected to set families back $14.4 billion. That’s $2847 for each primary school child and $5310 for secondary students on average.
More than one in 10 (13%) surveyed families will go into debt to fund back-to-school bills, while 6% of kids will have to use last year’s supplies.
Finder’s research shows 6% of surveyed parents will be buying second hand stationary and uniforms due to affordability issues.
4% of kids will have to ‘go without’ with parents not having the means to pay for supplies this year.
