Assertion Partly supported AI assessment confidence: 85% certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

25% of regular utility customers recently failed to pay their bills

Matt O'Keefe · The people-centric transition to zero emissions [Partner content] · Jul 12, 2022 · at 6:13

Matt O'Keefe of Oracle Opower discusses rising economic disparities and dynamic customer segmentation across US electric utilities.

0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.9s

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“In the last two years, a full quarter of people in the country who normally could pay their bill could not pay their bill for the first time.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Between 2020 and 2022, 25% of people in the United States who normally could pay their utility bills were unable to pay their bill for the first time.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim conflates the overall percentage of U.S. households facing energy bill hardship with a specific subset experiencing non-payment 'for the first time'. Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey and NEADA during the 2021–2022 period found that 19.7% (nearly 1 in 5) of U.S. households were unable to pay an energy bill in full at least once in the prior 12 months, and 28.8% forewent basic necessities to pay energy bills. While the ~20% to 25% magnitude closely reflects the total share of the population experiencing utility non-payment and energy burden during this timeframe, federal and industry benchmarks track overall non-payment rates and arrearages rather than isolating that 25% of habitual payers missed a payment specifically for the first time.

NEADA analysis of U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey data (July–December 2021) found that 19.7% of U.S. households were unable to pay an energy bill, or pay in full, at least one month in the prior year.
Household Pulse Survey data showed that 28.8% of U.S. households reduced or forewent basic necessities like food or medicine to pay an energy bill in late 2021.
NEADA reported in August 2022 that approximately 20 million households (about 1 in 6, or ~16.7%) were in utility arrears.
Federal survey instruments (Census Household Pulse, Federal Reserve SHED, EIA) do not track a separate metric for individuals who normally paid their bills missing a payment specifically for the first time.

Checked against

[1] neada.org [2] 247wallst.com [3] nascus.org [4] lendingtree.com [5] lendingtree.com [6] oracle.com [7] facebook.com [8] facebook.com

"SHED" "utility" "bills" "2021" OR "2022" "Federal Reserve" "unable to pay" "energy bill" "first time" 2020 OR 2021 OR 2022 Census Household pulse survey utility bills unable to pay 2020 2021 2022 "Household Pulse Survey" "unable to pay energy bill" 2021 2022 percent "Oracle" "affordability" "utility bills" "25%" OR "25 percent" 2021 OR 2022 "unable to pay" utility bill "first time" 2020 2022 OR 25 percent "Household Pulse Survey" "energy bills" "first time" "Oracle" "survey" "utility bills" "pay" "first time" 2021 OR 2022

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

people in the country utility bill

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25% of regular utility customers recently failed to pay their bills

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