More Americans had trouble paying for their utilities last winter despite heating costs dropping to pre-pandemic levels, potentially pointing to a hot and deadly summer for millions of consumers, said the nonprofit National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
The average cost of home heating last winter was $836, down from $978 in the prior year and $849 in 2020, said NEADA, which represents state directors of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Yet, the Household Pulse Survey showed that in March, 19.2% of all families couldn’t pay at least one home energy bill in the last 12 months, up from 16.5% in the prior-year period.
The loss of pandemic-era programs, including the enhanced child tax credit (CTC), boosted the number of people struggling to pay even smaller bills and it could get worse this summer, said Mark Wolfe, NEADA executive director. The enhanced CTC increased the maximum credit to $3,000 per qualifying child between ages 6 and 17, and $3,600 per qualifying child under age 6. It also allowed eligible families to receive part of the credit in 2021, through advance payments of up to $250 per month for each qualifying child age 6 to 17 at the end of 2021.
“Unlike the price of winter heating, the cost of summer cooling is going up due to the unprecedented rising of summer temperatures,” he said.
Struggles will likely worsen
More than one out of six households (16%, or 21.12 million households) are already behind on their energy bills,…
