High utility bills can be more than a budget-buster. They also can cause anxiety and depression in low-income families, a new study finds.
The study included 72 families in the Boston area with annual incomes of $32,000 or less and utility costs that were as much as $650 a month at the height of winter.
Utility bills "at $200 per month represent nearly 30 percent of household income for those at or near the federal poverty level, making it a significant, and likely unaffordable, expense," said study author Diana Hernandez.
"While participants often expressed an ethos of responsibly 'paying the bills,' many simply cannot afford the monthly utility payments and were often 'playing catch-up' in a vicious economic cycle of prioritization and trade-offs, complicating the already fragile financial profiles of low-income ratepayers," she said.
[For more of this story go to https://consumer.healthday.com...e-budget-714611.html]
Comments (0)