Der Spiegel: How German Electricity Became A Luxury Item.

[Iterate]

32. We could parse the article word-by-word, number-by-number,

but it wouldn't add much to the demolition already done during the election, except of course, doing it in English.

Car and mass transit use in Germany does not follow the same cultural pattern as in the US. Train/tram/bus ticket prices have gone up noticeably, even as ridership is setting records. I won't go into it further here, but essentially for the groups mentioned in the OP, benzin use is nil.

Heating costs are normally covered in a rental agreement(unless usage is excessive), and at any rate, for the poor it would be covered under social support. Rents have gone up recently and that seems to be causing far more worry and complaints.

That leaves electricity. This chart is for a household of three, and since it is an average cost per household, we can assume an average income with average skills, but somewhat less pressure to be very careful with use and waste than the poor would need to be. That changes the conversation to one of education and assimilation, and not a staggering cost.

For a family of three, electricity cost would be less than 10% of the very minimum (Hartz IV) support levels of cash given for food and personal use. Not unreasonable.

There is one number here that would be too easily missed: 3500 kWh/yr. That's the standard for an average, well comfortable family.