Despite rapid gains in wages, more households across South Carolina struggled to afford what Trident United Way describes as a “survival budget” in 2022.
A smaller percentage of S.C. households lived in poverty in 2022 when compared to 2012, but there was an increase in the percentage of households that weren’t in poverty but did not have enough money to meet basic costs of living.
In both years, a decade apart, 44 percent of S.C. households had incomes that were “less than what’s needed to survive,” according to TUW. But in 2022, a smaller portion met the federal definition of living in poverty.
That’s a small silver lining on the dark cloud of bad news contained in the latest report from Trident United Way, which serves the Charleston metro area.
While the percentage of S.C. households hard-pressed to pay for basics has hovered between 42 and 45 percent since 2010, the state’s population has been growing rapidly, and the actual number of struggling households has been rising.
Those that aren’t technically in poverty but can’t afford “the basic cost of living in their county” are dubbed ALICE households — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
In 2022, the poverty threshold for a family of four was $27,750, but a “survival budget” for such a family in South Carolina, the ALICE threshold, was $79,740 that year, according to Trident United Way.
It’s a metric used to show that large numbers of households need help, including 939,833 in South Carolina that year. Of those, 297,348 were living in poverty.
As with the poverty line, a household is either above or below the ALICE threshold. Statewide, 14 percent of households were in poverty, and another 30 percent were ALICE households in 2022.
That’s little changed from 2021 and better than 2019; 2020 was not measured due to the pandemic.
Behind the similar percentages are those growing numbers of people. And they face very different challenges depending on the county in which they live because the costs of housing, child care, insurance and other basics can vary so much.
“For us, when we got the data, what was frankly shocking was how much the cost of living increased,” said Devon Wade, director of Advocacy and Public Relations at Trident United Way. “Of course, everyone has been talking about that, but to see the numbers …”
In Charleston County, according to TUW, the cost of a “survival budget” for a family of four with an infant and a toddler jumped from $70,716 to $89,004 in just one year.
Soaring rents and home prices accounted for some of that increase.
Making matters worse in 2022 was the expiration of enhanced federal child tax credits that had reduced childhood poverty nationwide. Wages increased, but not enough.
“It explains how people are teetering on the edge of financial instability,” said Wade.
The elderly, single-parent and Black or Hispanic households were all living below the ALICE threshold in higher percentages. Rural counties generally had higher percentages of struggling households than urban counties.
South Carolina’s strict income eligibility rules for food stamps — 130 percent of the federal poverty level — was cited by TUW as one problem. The nonprofit group said only 14 percent of South Carolina households below the ALICE threshold participated in the supplemental nutrition program.
The state also has among the strictest rules and lowest benefits for unemployment compensation, did not expand Medicaid and this year turned away federal funds for a summer childhood hunger program.
“The barriers for government support need to be reevaluated,” said Wade.
Katie Reams, director of United for ALICE at Trident United Way, said the nonprofit has not been advocating for policy changes but plans to do so.
”Our hope and goal for the next fiscal year is to move into the public policy and advocacy space,” Reams said.
The ALICE concept was developed by United Way of Northern New Jersey years ago and is now used in the majority of states. Trident United Way embraced the concept in 2023.
The 2024 ALICE report for South Carolina counties, from Trident United Way.