Who is ALICE?
ALICE is an acronym that stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It refers to households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) but cannot afford the basic cost of living in their county. Despite struggling to make ends meet, ALICE households often do not qualify for public assistance.
ALICE in the Crosscurrents: An Update on Financial Hardship in Indiana is brought to you by Indiana United Ways and United Way of Central Indiana in partnership with United for ALICE, a driver of innovative research and action around financial hardship for ALICE households.
To create the ALICE report, a team of researchers worked with research advisory committees composed of experts from Purdue University, Purpose of Life Ministries, the Public Policy Institute and The Polis Center at Indiana University, the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Black Onyx Management, Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute, and local United Ways.
The ALICE Household Survival Budget is the foundation of the ALICE research. This budget calculates the bare minimum cost of the household basics needed to live and work in the modern economy by household composition, in every county.
Key Insights from ALICE 2024 Update
- In 2022, financial hardship in Indiana continued to be shaped by the conflicting economic forces of the pandemic.
- Powerful crosscurrents – COVID-19, inflation, wage growth, and expansion and expiration of pandemic public assistance – impacted how many Indiana households were below the ALICE Threshold of Financial Survival.
- Between 2021 and 2022, the number of households in poverty in Indiana increased by 17,868 (13% of households) and the number of ALICE households increased by 18,255 (27% of households).
- In 2022, of the 2.7 million households in Indiana, 40% (over 1 million households) earned incomes below the ALICE Threshold of Financial Survival.
- The number of households with children in Indiana has declined (down 4% from 2010 to 2022), driven by a reduction in the number of married parent households and single-female-headed households. However, the number of single-male-headed households has increased (up 15% from 2010 to 2022).
- While the number of households with children and the number of households with children experiencing poverty has been declining, the number of ALICE households with children has increased for both married-parent and single-parent households.
- By 2022, 32% of families with children in Indiana were below the ALICE Threshold, including 75% of single-female-headed households and 52% of single-male-headed households.
- Households headed by people age 65+ are the fastest-growing age group in Indiana (up 34% from 2010 to 2022), and they are the age group with the most substantial increase in the number of ALICE households (up 34% from 2010 to 2022).
- In Indiana during 2022, 51% of households headed by people age 65+ were below the ALICE Threshold for Financial Survival. Social Security benefits have not been enough to bring older adults to financial stability.
What It Costs to Survive in Indiana
- The 2022 ALICE Household Survival Budget (county average) for a single working-age adult was $26,040 ($13.02/hour), for a single senior adult was $30,132 ($15.07/hour), and for a family of four with an infant and preschooler was $73,080 ($36.54/hour).
- Within Indiana, the Household Survival Budget varies from a low of $23,988 per year (Ripley County) to a high of $32,412 per year (Hamilton County) for a single adult household, and from a low of $68,808 per year (Pike County) to a high of $90,804 per year (Hamilton County) for a family of four.
- In contrast, the Federal Poverty Level for a single adult and family of four in 2022 was set at $13,590 and $27,750 respectively.
- Learn more about how inflation and other factors are influencing the cost of essentials in Indiana.
Download Your County’s ALICE Report
