Rising power prices put higher burden on low-income households than on wealthy ones
The doubling of electricity prices in Germany from 2000 to 2016 had significant distributional effects, because low-income households spend a larger share of their income on energy than wealthy households, said industry-funded Rhineland-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI) in a research paper. “While the share of electricity costs of the income of wealthier households is around 1.5 percent, a three-person household at risk of poverty had to spend almost 5 percent of its income in 2016 to pay for electricity costs,” writes RWI in a press release.
Find the press release in German and the paper in German .
For background, read the 91tv article Welfare groups urge power cost relief for German poor and the factsheet What German households pay for power.
