Small Business Debt Helpline (SBDH) 2025 data release fact sheet
Case numbers
- For the 12 months ended 31 December 2025, the SBDH has provided 6,205 cases of assistance through phone and chat services.
- This is a 21% increase on the prior year.
- Since the service began in 2020 it has provided 18,533 cases of assistance to 16,254 unique businesses.
Types of debt
64% of cases had a debt with the ATO (up from 61% in 2024). We assisted clients with more than $429 million in debts to the ATO and the median ATO debt size was $70k.
The next most common were business loans, both bank and non-bank, and home mortgages then motor vehicle finance and supplier debts. Lease of business premises, other personal and other business debts were also frequently seen.
Types of industries helped
The helpline continues to assist small businesses from a broad range of industries.
This reporting period continued to see businesses from the construction industry, accommodation & food services, and personal & other services in the top three most frequently represented industries.
Age of Business
For the 12 months to December 2025 28% of the businesses had been operating for ten or more years which indicates it’s not just young inexperienced business doing it tough.
Vulnerable circumstances
It is important to recognise that small businesses are run by people who can experience vulnerable circumstances similar to those of individual consumers. However, many of the safeguards in place to protect or assist vulnerable consumers, such as the right to request that a creditor consider a request for hardship, are not in place or are less mature or less accessible for small business consumers/customers.
During the course of a conversation, it may be apparent that a client is experiencing circumstances that contribute to their financial (and other) challenges or make it difficult to take the actions necessary to address those challenges.
The most common of these vulnerabilities was low levels of financial/business literacy (27%). This would include matters such as a lack of proficiency in basic budgeting and cashflow management, awareness of tax obligations and understanding the difference between gross revenue and making a profit.
Consistent with the prior periods, mental distress is common amongst callers, and a material portion of callers are seeking the help of a mental health professional at the time of contacting the Helpline.
Outside of financial/business literacy, distress and mental health, the most common vulnerability experienced by callers is an illness or injury. A portion of our clients have language barriers that compound their challenges. Concerningly, we also have a portion of callers experiencing domestic violence. In these instances, the person may have been coerced into directorships, loans, and guarantees without any ability to influence the company’s activities or access the items purchased/funds borrowed. In some situations, they have not had any knowledge of the loans or their directorship until an issue has arisen.
Business Intent
For the twelve months ending 31 December 2025, 50% of business owners intended to continue to operate their business, and 28% did not intend to continue or reopen.
