It is now time to regionalize the Federal Poverty level, “Yes We Can.” To think that a family of four can survive on $22,050 in Suffolk County Long Island is ridiculous. The bare minimum is the following:
Rent $1500
Transportation $200 And These Aren't Even Included:
Food $400 Child Care?
Phone/Internet $100 Health Insurance?
Water $40 How much more?
LIPA $100
National Grid $100
Clothes $150
______________________________________
Total $2,540 x 12 = $30,480 per year after taxes needed to survive
$22,050 is the magic number; it is used by the Federal Government to cut off a mother with three children from any
help with TANF (Welfare). It gets worse; she can’t even get food stamps if she made $28,665.
Even now, the Federal Poverty Guideline has three categories, 48 indigenous states as well as DC,Alaska
Hawaii
must be taken into account in order to help the poor in different parts of the country.
By regionalizing the Federal Poverty level, raising it where it costs more to live would help not only with shelter and
with food for families, it would impact eligibility in over 32 government programs meant to help people. Because the
Federal Poverty Guidelines were only developed in 1963-1964 by Mollie Onshansky based upon food expenditures,
now seems to be a reasonable time to come up with a more serious accounting of how one should create the federal
poverty guidelines for each area of the country based upon the cost of living.
Please note the following research
“May 1, 2008 -- Researchers and policy analysts at the National Center Columbia
University America
The poverty measure the government uses today was established in the 1960s and was based on research that
said families spent about one-third of their incomes on food. To determine the official poverty level, government
officials simply multiplied food costs by three. Although the figures are updated annually for inflation, they have
otherwise remained unchanged.
The problem with using this method to measure poverty, according toNCC P, is that food now comprises only one-
seventh of an average family’s expenses, while the costs of housing, childcare, health care, and transportation have
grown disproportionately. The result is that the current poverty level has little bearing on the cost of family
necessities.
“Most analysts will tell you that today’s poverty thresholds – about $21,000 for a family of four – are inhumanely
low,” says Nancy K. Cauthen, PhD, deputy director of NCCP. When asked how much it takes for a family of four to
make ends meet, 70 percent of Americans say $40,000 or more. And in fact, research consistently shows that, on
average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to meet their basic needs. “The poverty
measure created 40 years ago does not account for the vast differences in the cost of living across the country. So
poverty in high-cost cities likeBoston San Francisco
Kentucky New Mexico
Because the federal poverty level has never been adjusted for real changes in the actual cost of living, people who
are considered poor today by the official standard are worse off relative to everyone else, than people considered
poor when the poverty measure was established in the ’60s. The current federal poverty measure equals about 29
percent of median household income, whereas in the 1960s, the poverty level was nearly 50 percent of median
income.
Dr. Cauthen points out that most advanced industrialized countries measure poverty quite differently from the U.S.
Rather than setting minimum income thresholds below which individuals and families are considered to be poor,
other countries measure economic disadvantage relative to the citizenry as a whole, for example, having income
below 50 percent of median.
“We are hopeful that Americans will join us in urging our legislators to take a good hard look at how we as a country
address poverty – starting with a realistic way to define what it means in today’s terms, not those of the 1960s,” says
Dr. Cauthen.
For more information about poverty, including frequently asked questions on the topic, access the NCCP website at http://www.nccp.org/
Rent $1500
Transportation $200 And These Aren't Even Included:
Food $400 Child Care?
Phone/Internet $100 Health Insurance?
Water $40 How much more?
LIPA $100
National Grid $100
Clothes $150
______________________________________
Total $2,540 x 12 = $30,480 per year after taxes needed to survive
$22,050 is the magic number; it is used by the Federal Government to cut off a mother with three children from any
help with TANF (Welfare). It gets worse; she can’t even get food stamps if she made $28,665.
Even now, the Federal Poverty Guideline has three categories, 48 indigenous states as well as DC,
must be taken into account in order to help the poor in different parts of the country.
By regionalizing the Federal Poverty level, raising it where it costs more to live would help not only with shelter and
with food for families, it would impact eligibility in over 32 government programs meant to help people. Because the
Federal Poverty Guidelines were only developed in 1963-1964 by Mollie Onshansky based upon food expenditures,
now seems to be a reasonable time to come up with a more serious accounting of how one should create the federal
poverty guidelines for each area of the country based upon the cost of living.
Please note the following research
“
The poverty measure the government uses today was established in the 1960s and was based on research that
said families spent about one-third of their incomes on food. To determine the official poverty level, government
officials simply multiplied food costs by three. Although the figures are updated annually for inflation, they have
otherwise remained unchanged.
The problem with using this method to measure poverty, according to
seventh of an average family’s expenses, while the costs of housing, childcare, health care, and transportation have
grown disproportionately. The result is that the current poverty level has little bearing on the cost of family
necessities.
“Most analysts will tell you that today’s poverty thresholds – about $21,000 for a family of four – are inhumanely
low,” says Nancy K. Cauthen, PhD, deputy director of NCCP. When asked how much it takes for a family of four to
make ends meet, 70 percent of Americans say $40,000 or more. And in fact, research consistently shows that, on
average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to meet their basic needs. “The poverty
measure created 40 years ago does not account for the vast differences in the cost of living across the country. So
poverty in high-cost cities like
Because the federal poverty level has never been adjusted for real changes in the actual cost of living, people who
are considered poor today by the official standard are worse off relative to everyone else, than people considered
poor when the poverty measure was established in the ’60s. The current federal poverty measure equals about 29
percent of median household income, whereas in the 1960s, the poverty level was nearly 50 percent of median
income.
Dr. Cauthen points out that most advanced industrialized countries measure poverty quite differently from the U.S.
Rather than setting minimum income thresholds below which individuals and families are considered to be poor,
other countries measure economic disadvantage relative to the citizenry as a whole, for example, having income
below 50 percent of median.
“We are hopeful that Americans will join us in urging our legislators to take a good hard look at how we as a country
address poverty – starting with a realistic way to define what it means in today’s terms, not those of the 1960s,” says
Dr. Cauthen.
For more information about poverty, including frequently asked questions on the topic, access the NCCP website at http://www.nccp.org/
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