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ALICE in the News

Number of Working Poor Families in Connecticut Rise

By Harriet Jones October 12, 2016 The proportion of people in Connecticut who are working, and yet still struggling to make ends meet has risen in the last two years. That’s according to a new study from United Way. They’re called ALICE; that’s the shorthand for people who are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. The designation comes from United Way of Connecticut, which is attempting to put a face on this group, which the charity says doesn’t receive enough recognition or help from society at large. United Way’s latest ALICE report, says more than one in four households in the state can be described this way; 27 percent of the state’s population, up from 25 percent in its latest study in 2014. That’s more… Read More »Number of Working Poor Families in Connecticut Rise

Report: Many families living one emergency away from poverty

By Lindsay Boyle October 9, 2016 Close your eyes for a moment and imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes: You’re a mom or a dad of two children, and you’ve just unexpectedly been laid off. You manage to quickly find a job that nets you about $450 a month, but it’s nothing compared to what you and your partner used to pull in. Still, you’re managing to scrape by, in part by giving up the fresh food you used to purchase. Then your car’s brakes give out. If you get them fixed, you’ll be out of money for the month, and it’s only the 12th. Continue reading: theday.com

Local households not making ends meet

By Susan Corica October 11, 2016 Families struggling to meet basic needs are becoming more prevalent in the Nutmeg State, and particularly in cities like Bristol. Two years ago, United Ways introduced the ALICE [Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed] Report to highlight the increasing number of state residents who are working but are having trouble paying for basic necessities like food, child care, health care and transportation. Continue reading: The Bristol Press

Report: 38 percent of Connecticut residents can’t meet basic needs

By Mark Zaretsky October 9, 2016 Two years after a United Way report found that 35 percent of Connecticut households were struggling, we are two years farther away from the Great Recession — but the percentage of families earning below a basic survival budget in Connecticut has grown a bit, a new report says. The updated ALICE Report found that 65 percent of the households in New Haven were either below the poverty line or fit the definition for ALICE, compared to 74 percent in Hartford, 63 percent in both Bridgeport and Waterbury, 55 percent in New London, 52 percent in Meriden, 42 percent in Danbury and 35 percent in Stamford. Elsewhere in the state, Middletown and Torrington were 36 percent and 43 percent, respectively.… Read More »Report: 38 percent of Connecticut residents can’t meet basic needs

Our View: Making it When the odds are against you

October 12, 2016 Connecticut is generally considered a wealthy state- which leaves a lot of people feeling left out. Sure there are mansions on the Gold Coast and prosperity in some of the suburbs surrounding Hartford. But they don’t tell the whole story. The percentage of people who don’t make enough to pay for an “annual survival budget” is now 38 percent, according to the United Way’s most recent ALICE, or Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed report. Continue reading: New Britain Herald

CT Families Continue to Struggle Financially, United Way Report Reveals

October 10, 2016 More Connecticut households are struggling to pay for their most basic needs, according to a new report from United Way. More than one out of four households – in one of the wealthiest states in the U.S. – are employed, yet still fall below what is needed to thrive financially. That is an increase in both the number and percentage of such households in 2014 as compared with 2012, according to the updated ALICE report. A total of 361,521 Connecticut households fall into what the study describes as the ALICE population. These are households earning more than the official U.S. poverty level, but less than the basic cost of living. This is more than 2.5 times the number of households that fall… Read More »CT Families Continue to Struggle Financially, United Way Report Reveals

More CT Families Struggling to Get By

By Andrea Sears October 10, 2016 More than a quarter of Connecticut households have jobs but still have trouble making ends meet, according to an updated report from United Way. Meet ALICE, a term that applies to more than 350,000 households in Connecticut. It stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. And according to Richard Porth, CEO of United Way of Connecticut, those numbers have grown since the first ALICE report two years ago. Continue reading: publicnewsservice.org

Report Finds That Many Families Are Still Struggling

By Kristi Allen October 10, 2016 The federal poverty rate is commonly regarded as inadequate for measuring the true scope of financial hardship in this country,” United Way of Western Connecticut CEO Kim Morgan said. “The ALICE report shows that the federal poverty rate is woefully inadequate to support an individual, let alone a family.” Despite having leveled off since 2012, the number of financially insecure families in Connecticut is still growing. “The number of households below the poverty line and the ALICE threshold is continuing to increase at a time when I think we were all starting to expect to see things getting better,” United Way ALICE Project Director Stephanie Hoopes Halpin said. Despite recent news that the median income has increased and poverty… Read More »Report Finds That Many Families Are Still Struggling

Households struggling to make ends meet increases in Connecticut

By Ryan Blessing October 9, 2016 More households in Connecticut are struggling just to make ends meet, according to a new report released today by the United Way.The updated ALICE report says both the number and percentage of households in Connecticut struggling to pay for their most basic needs increased from 2012 to 2014. More than one out of four households in one of the wealthiest states are employed, yet still fall below what is needed to thrive financially, according to the report. ALICE is an acronym for those described as Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed, according to the United Way. Continue reading: Norwichbulletin.com

Editorial: Plight of the working poor

October 9, 2016 We can see the homeless, though some of us may look away. But there is no social reflex for responding to the masses of neighbors who struggle to survive financially every day. A fallout of our long economic crisis is that it now eludes focus. The United Way has spent the last few years trying to put a face on people who live in households above the Federal Poverty Level but below the basic cost-of-living threshold. United Way dubbed them ALICE, a more memorable handle than “Asset-Limited, Income-Constricted Employed.” Continue reading: Stamford Advocate