Data Collection Activities

Consequently, such data are excluded from the LIHEAP Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2021. [...] The data from this survey provide state-level estimates on the sources and uses of states’ LIHEAP funds, average household benefits, and the maximum income cutoffs for determining income eligibility for a four-member household. [...] Therefore, the LIHEAP Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2021 utilizes the 2015 RECS to estimate energy expenditures and burden for FY 2021. [...] LIHEAP Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2021: Appendix A 6 Strengths and Limitations of RECS Data The RECS provides the most recent, comprehensive data on home energy consumption and expenditures. The strengths of using RECS data to derive home energy estimates are as follows: • The RECS uses a representative national household sample, providing statistically reliable estimates for all, [...] Some variation in the count of households, particularly those containing renters or boarders, may result from the difference in these definitions.LIHEAP Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2021: Appendix A 7 • The CPS ASEC, conducted by the Census Bureau, provides, at national and regional levels, data on total household income as a specific dollar amount whereas RECS provides household incom [...] Therefore, the 2021 CPS ASEC is used to develop estimates of the number of low income households. In addition, mean income statistics from the CPS ASEC are used in the calculation of group energy burden for this report.2 2 Note that household-level energy and income data from RECS are used to calculate mean and median individual energy burden. [...] LIHEAP Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2021: Appendix A 8 Computational Procedures There are two ways to compute mean (average) energy burden for a given group of households. The first is the “mean individual burden” approach and the second is the “mean group burden” approach. [...] Comparisons between the estimates of the number of LIHEAP income eligible households from the 1990 RECS and the 1991 March CPS suggest that the probable range of the overestimate in mean group energy burden is from 5 to 10 percent. [...] The key difference between mean individual burden and mean group burden is that mean individual burden focuses on the experience of individual households, whereas mean group burden focuses on the experience of a group of households. The mean individual burden furnishes more information on how individual households are affected by energy burden (i.e., itLIHEAP Report to Congress for Fiscal Year [...] This statistic furnishes information on the aggregate energy cost of LIHEAP income eligible households and the portion of income for this group that is spent on energy.