According to the calculations of a German Institute of Economics (IW), every fourth person in Germany had to spend more than 10% of their net household income on energy in May. Last year, it was just 14.5% of households, according to a study by the IW Institute, which is close to employers.
“The risk of energy poverty has increased enormously,” IW economist Ralph Henger told Welt am Sonntag. “Skyping energy prices put private households under increasing financial pressure”. According to IW’s calculations, low-wage earners and households in difficult transition phases are particularly affected. These include the unemployed, people in retirement or single-parent families.
According to the calculations, in the lowest income group, almost two in three people (65%) had to spend more than 10% of their income on energy in May this year. According to statistics, many people in this group are anyway at risk of poverty, that is, they earn less than 60% of the average net household income.
“However, the gap between income groups is smaller than suggested in the public debate,” says IW economist Henger. “The risk of energy poverty reaches the middle class”. According to the study, people are considered to be at risk of energy poverty if they have to spend more than ten percent of their net household income on heating, hot water, cooking and electricity.
On Saturday evening, Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had warned of a possible “price explosion” in some municipal utilities at an event organized by the newspaper “Die Zeit”. According to Habeck, this could happen if Russia stops supplying natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in the Baltic Sea and the federal government allows large suppliers such as Uniper to pass on prices to their customers, such as utilities general interest.
Against the backdrop of the worsening natural gas crisis, leading representatives of the social partners, the Bundesbank and academics will meet with the government from next Monday to discuss inflation. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) launched a dialogue process as coordinated action.
Source: Capital
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