Many In Bernards Twp. 1 Emergency From 'Financial Ruin': Report

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Twenty-three percent of Bernards Township households were one emergency away from financial ruin before the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study. United Way of Northern New Jersey released a report Sunday that indicates many New Jerseyans entered the pandemic in vulnerable financial positions.

United Way measured "ALICE" households, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. United Way of Northern New Jersey coined the phrase in 2009 to represent those living paycheck to paycheck. The report's data represents figures from 2018.

According to United Way, 5 percent of Somerset County households are in poverty and an additional 24 percent are ALICE households.

More than half the households in three Somerset County towns were below the ALICE threshold in 2018: Manville (53 percent), Bound Brook (53 percent) and North Plainfield (53 percent). Montgomery Township had the county's lowest percentage at 16 percent.

See full county profiles here.

“No matter how hard ALICE families worked, the gap between their wages and the cost of basics just kept widening,” said Kiran Handa Gaudioso, CEO of United Way of North New Jersey. “These already fragile ALICE households are now facing an even deeper financial hole due to the state of emergency created by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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The ALICE threshold in Somerset County increased over the last decade, according to the organization. In 2010, the household threshold was $60,000 per year for people under 65 and $50,000 for seniors. Those figures increased in 2018 to $75,000 for people under 65 and $60,000 for seniors.

From 2010 to 2018, Somerset County's impoverished population increased from 5,169 to 6,167. The number of ALICE households went from 27,092 to 28,834 — in that span, the figure peaked at 29,617 in 2016.

New Jersey's cost of survival in 2018 was $30,240 for a single adult, $33,552 for a senior citizen and $88,224 for a family of four with an infant and a preschooler, according to the report. The median hourly wage for freight and stock laborers — the most common job in New Jersey — was $12.93, or $25,860 per year, according to United Way.

“Going back to normal is not good enough,” Gaudioso said. “Normal means 37 percent of New Jersey households cannot afford the basics for survival. Normal is Black and Hispanic households shouldering a disproportionate share of financial hardship. Normal means the cost of basics rising at nearly twice the rate of inflation and outpacing wages. We can do better.”

United Way of Northern New Jersey strives to create equity for people in poverty and those living paycheck to paycheck.

Click here to get the full report.

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