The United Way has released its ALICE report, which stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” – an apt description of many Hoosiers. It says 36-percent of households in Indiana could not afford basic needs – such as housing, child care, food, health care and transportation – in 2014. That means almost a million people live in households below the Federal Poverty Level – or live above it but still struggle to afford necessities. Maureen Noe, who heads the Indiana Association of United Ways, says the poverty numbers held steady since the last ALICE report two years ago, but working families haven’t caught up with where they were before the recession.
In Indiana, the report says more than 550-thousand households live above the official poverty level, but below the ALICE threshold for the basic cost of living.
Nancy Vaughan, president of the United Way of Madison County, says this new report also takes an in-depth look at who is struggling the most.
The report found the cost of living increased in every county in Indiana between 2007 and 2014. It says nearly 70 percent of all jobs in the state pay less than 20-dollars an hour, and low-wage jobs are expected to grow faster than high-wage jobs in the next decade.