Andrew Rosenthal, 16 April 2021, "Have you ever had to choose between paying your utility bills and paying other bills such as rent, groceries, phone bill, etc.? (Q34)", contributed by Andrew Rosenthal, Briana Leone and Alison Kenner, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 28 June 2021, accessed 4 May 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/have-you-ever-had-choose-between-paying-your-utility-bills-and-paying-other-bills-such-rent
Critical Commentary
This chart reflects responses to Question #34 from the Spring 2020 survey, which asked: “Have you ever had to choose between paying your utility bills and paying other bills such as rent, groceries, phone bill, etc.?” The responses available where “yes, in the past”, “yes, due to COVID-19”, “no, I have never had to make such a decision”, “no, but I am worried I might have to due to COVID-19 impacts”, “I don’t know”, and “other.”
Eighty-four respondents answered this question and each chose one answer only.
Sixty-six (77.4%) respondents said “no, I have never had to make such a decision.”
Eleven (13.3%) said “yes, in the past.”
One (1.2%) said they did not know.
One (1.2%) said ”yes, due to COVID-19”.
One (1.2%) said “see below” and talked about lending money to a friend making it harder to pay for groceries so they had to save on groceries until their friend paid them back.
Four (4.8%) said, “no, but I am worried I might have to due to COVID-19 impacts.”
The data was produced by the Shifting Energy Demands in COVID-19 Survey - Overview, which was administered to 86 people over a six week period in May-June 2020. Visit the Shifting Energy Demands in COVID-19 - Survey Results page to view more data from our survey. The project is approved by Drexel’s IRB.