11/16/2014
It’s not a secret that there are significant pockets of poverty in Connecticut: 10 percent of the state’s households live below the federal poverty line.
There is also, according to a study released Sunday by the 16 United Ways in Connecticut, a large cohort of working people — another 25 percent of households — whose income puts them above the poverty line, but not far enough above it to make ends meet. The study calls this population ALICE, for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.”
Put simply, more than a third of the state’s households are struggling.
A major theme of the ALICE study is that the federal poverty line doesn’t remotely reflect the actual cost of living in the state. The study uses a tool called the Household Survival Budget, which compiles the minimum cost of necessities such as housing, child care, health care, food and transportation.
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