Household financial stress was a mixed bag in June, though stress levels eased overall - a relief for banks and mortgage funders.

However, the ABS’ latest insights on stress in its Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey highlights the socio-economic divide created in part by the pandemic, but mainly by the uneven income transfers rushed into place in March, which left international students and the freelance workforce of select industry sectors in the cold.

In the June survey, 11 per cent of people 18 or older told the ABS they had difficulty paying their rent, or feared eviction (even though this is now tricky, even unlawful). This was the same level reported in the corresponding ABS survey in April.

The ABS put the percentage of those worrying about paying the mortgage for their home (or an investment property) at 5 per cent in late June, a steep fall from 13 per cent in April, only a month or so into the nationwide economic slowdown.

Concern (or panic) over getting stood down or laid off halved between April (6 per cent) and June (3 per cent).

Those who told the ABS of their “problems getting a job” was unchanged at 6 per cent.

Those “working paid hours” in late June the ABS put at 61.4 per cent, the highest reading since the crisis swept the country.

Most states had no coronavirus cases or small numbers during the survey period.

The surge in cases in Melbourne and Sydney over the last two weeks must be undoing the mildly more relaxed attitudes in the ABS findings for June, and killing jobs and incomes once more.