consumer
Energy: People with lower incomes proportionally spend the most
A man turns the thermostat on a heater in an apartment. Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Energy prices have skyrocketed recently. This hits households with little money particularly hard. The federal government wants to help some households.
Rising energy prices place a particularly heavy burden on households with low incomes. According to the Federal Statistical Office, they spend the most on electricity, heating and hot water.
Households with a monthly net income of less than 1,300 euros spent an average of 95 euros on residential energy in 2020, when heating oil, gas and electricity were comparatively cheap. That corresponded to a share of 9.5 percent of their total consumer spending, as the Wiesbaden authority announced on Tuesday.
Households in the highest income class with a monthly net income of at least 5,000 euros spent significantly more on residential energy, with an average of 206 euros. However, at 4.7 percent in 2020, the share of private consumption expenditure was not even half as high as that of households in the lowest income class.
While energy prices were still falling in 2020 during the Corona crisis, they rose significantly in the course of the global economic recovery last year. According to the comparison portal Verivox, energy has increased in price by 35 percent within a year. “Never before have private households had to pay so much for heating, electricity and fuel,” it said. According to Check24, more than 900 gas suppliers have implemented or announced price increases in the basic supply of an average of around 34 percent.
Because of the high heating costs, recipients of housing benefit should receive a one-off grant. According to a bill by the new housing ministry, people living alone should receive 135 euros, a two-person household 175 euros. For each additional roommate an additional 35 euros are provided.
Subsidy for around 710,000 households
The Ampel-Coalition decided on the grant after heating costs rose rapidly in the autumn. “This should ensure that living and heating remain affordable and that the additional costs from the cold winter months are absorbed,” says a key issues paper from the ministry. The lump sum is part of the housing benefit paid to low-income households. A total of around 710,000 households should benefit from the one-time grant.
According to analyzes of the comparison portals, the situation is particularly difficult for recipients of Hartz-IV. Despite higher standard rates since the beginning of the year, according to Verivox, there is less and less money for those affected to cover the rising electricity prices. According to this, a single Hartz IV household currently has to pay 139 euros per year or almost 32 percent more for energy than the electricity cost share in the standard rate covers, as a recently published analysis shows.
“In 2022, the standard rate for a single adult will rise by three euros to 449 euros per month,” says the comparison portal. “From a purely arithmetical point of view, 36.44 euros are earmarked for paying the electricity bill.” However, according to Verivox calculations, the electricity costs of a single household with a consumption of 1500 kilowatt hours amounted to a national average of 48 euros per month. In households in which water is also heated with electricity – for example with a flow heater – the costs rise again.
The comparison platform Check24 had published similar calculations. There, the electricity cost gap is put at a slightly lower 136 euros per year, or just under 30 percent.