The LIHEAP Databook
Highlights from the LIHEAP Databook for FY 2003
For many low-income households, people with disabilities and senior
citizens, home energy costs are unaffordable. Without energy assistance,
many low-income households would have to choose between heating
and other vital necessities such as food, medicine, rent or mortgage.
These families often carry a higher energy burden than most Americans.
From the national perspective:
Energy Burden
- In FY 2003, the average household had energy costs of
$1,337 and a mean individual energy burden of 6 percent of annual
income. Energy burden is the percentage of a household’s
annual income that is used to pay residential energy costs.
- In FY 2003, low-income households – households with
annual incomes under the LIHEAP income maximum of the greater of
150 percent of the federal poverty level or 60 percent of state
median income – had residential energy expenditures of
$1,165. While the expenditures are 17 percent less than the average
household, the mean individual energy burden for low-income households
was 13 percent, twice as much as the burden for the average household.
- In FY 2003, residential energy costs for LIHEAP-recipient
households were $1,309 and the mean individual energy burden
was 17 percent, 4 percentage points higher than the average low-
income household.
Population Served
- An estimated 4.4 million low-income households received
heating and/or cooling assistance in FY 2003. This is only
13.5 percent of the more than 32.7 million income-eligible households.
- Of the households receiving assistance in FY 2003,
about 37 percent had at least one member 60 years or older, about
50 percent included at least one disabled member and about 21
percent included at least one child five years or younger. LIHEAP
is part of the vital social safety net for low-income households
and senior citizens living on a fixed income.
- In FY 2003, two-thirds of the LIHEAP recipients had
annual household incomes lower than 150 percent of the federal
poverty level. LIHEAP clearly helps those who are most vulnerable.
From the state perspective, it is clear that the majority of state
programs are doing their best to serve their eligible population,
but that many are chronically underfunded. In many cases, the number
of eligible households far exceeds the number of households the
program is able to assist. It is also evident that states are serving
the neediest first; the vast majority of LIHEAP-recipient households
include elderly, people with disabilities, or young children, and
are at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty standards.
Download the LIHEAP Databook here
[PDF]
Or, click on any state below to see data about the LIHEAP program
in that state.
Data Sources
The primary data sources for this Databook are two reports created
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families, Office of Community Services Division
of Energy Assistance: LIHEAP Home Energy
Notebook for FY 2003 (published August 2005) and the LIHEAP
Report to Congress for FY 2003 (published February 2006). These reports are published
annually and provide detailed information about the LIHEAP program
and its implementation. Data regarding low-income household residential
energy costs came from the April 2004 report, Home
Energy Affordability Gap published by economist Roger Colton of Fisher, Sheehan and
Colton. This report is available online at
http://www.fsconline.com.
The Campaign for Home Energy Assistance intends to update this Databook
annually as federal data sources become available.
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