Power cuts usually affect households in debt or on the dole

German households that receive social benefits or are indebted are more likely to be affected by power cuts than others, a study conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) has found. While “income plays a major role” in the roughly 330,000 forced cuts of electricity supply for German households in 2016, these “cannot solely be explained by low incomes”, the ZEW says in a press release, adding that existing debt was a “very significant” factor. Other contributing factors were a low level of formal education and the number of people living in a given household, with single households being at a greater risk. “A lack of family support in problem solving and insufficient formal education play an important role”, says Peter Heindl of the ZEW. The best way to prevent power cuts was “tailor-made debt counselling”, Heindl says.

Read the press release in German here.

See the CLEW factsheet What German households pay for power and the CLEW article Welfare groups urge power cost relief for German poor for more information.