“It’s a shame, in such a wealthy country as ours, people having their electricity cut off”: this was said today by mgr. Peter Neher, president of Caritas Germany (Dcv), after the publication of a survey about “Causes of power outages in private homes”, developed by Dcv in partnership with the Centre for European Economic Research (Zew). In 2016, approximately 330 thousand families had their electricity cut off by the Federal Electricity Agency. Overall, the estimate for 2017 is over 6 million Germans at risk of having their electricity cut off. The Dcv/Zew survey looked for the first time at who is concerned by such measures and they found that families with children are the majority of those who have their electricity cut off because they fail or are chronically late with the payment of their bills, followed by poorly educated people and old people living alone. According to such survey, the risk is higher when families already have other creditors, such as finance companies for things they bought or outstanding rents or mortgages. The experience of Caritas’s advisory centres shows the inconveniences that may be caused by not having electricity, especially for families with old, sick or disabled people. With its “Energy saving plan”, Caritas helps low-income people by advising them on how to reduce their energy consumption and costs: “Along with this project, we expect structural responses”, Neher says, meaning governmental efforts and solutions.