Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc Meg Power, PhD National Low-Income Energy Consortium St Louis MO. June 8, 2004
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc. 2 All U.S. Households Reporting Any of 9 Hardships in 1998
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc. 3 All US Households with Selected 1998 Hardships, by Hardship
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc Million Energy Hardship Households by 1998 Poverty Level
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc. 5 # of Hardships of 9.1 Million Households That Missed 1998 Energy Payments
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc. 6 One More
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc. 7 Two More
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc. 8 Four More
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc. 9 Lowest Income = Highest Number of Hardships
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc Consumers with Energy Hardships Are: Working
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc Consumers with Energy Hardships Are: Under 65
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc Consumers with Energy Hardships Are Typically Parents Not Married Not Participants in Government Programs
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc Consumers with Energy Hardships Are: On Their Own!
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc Summary: Strategies/Policies Based on Realities - Consumers who aren’t paying probably have: –Multiple unpaid bills and hardships –Rented Homes with one or more defects –Families and children –Work, for many irregular, part-time, and low-wage –Uncertain health care and nutrition –The expectation that they will take care of their obligations without anyone’s help.
Economic Opportunity Studies, Inc endnote These statistics are measures of household well-being from the 1998 and 2001 cohorts of Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) respondents. The data are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 1996 Panel Wave 8 Topical Module; the details of information provided by those who said they were unable to afford their full energy costs were analyzed by EOS and are found at See also the SIPP working paper: Kurt Bauman “Direct Measures of Poverty as Indicators of Economic Need: Evidence from the Survey of Income and Program Participation,” U.S. Bureau of the Census Population Division Technical Working Paper No. 30, November 1998.