Current News

May/Jun 2009 FSC Newsletter
Under the Food Stamp program’s excess shelter deduction, to the extent that a household’s total shelter costs exceed 50%of the household’s income, the amount of the excess is deducted from household income. As income goes down, the amount of Food Stamps to which a household is entitled goes up. The Standard Utility Allowance (SUA) can be used to establish household utility expenditures irrespective of the household’s actual utility costs. This issue examines certain issues in setting SUAs to ensure that SUAs accurately capture the utility costs associated with households with high shelter costs.


Mar/Apr 2009 FSC Newsletter
What constitutes a "best-in-class" low-income utility rate affordability program? This issue summarizes the findings of a 2008 FSC report that identifies best-in-class criteria and applies those criteria to eight different utility programs throughout the nation.


Jan/Feb 2009 FSC Newsletter
The Iowa Utilities Board recently proposed regulations allowing electric utilities to install "service limiters" in the homes of customers who had defaulted on deferred payment plans. This issue reviews the comments of the Iowa Department of Human Rights explaining how and why such technology presents unreasonable health and safety risks to low-income customers.

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