2010 Federal Poverty Guidelines

[Mike B. 231]

I don't know if anyone has posted this already, but I know that people regularly ask about when the new Federal Poverty Guidelines will come out, and there's an interesting piece about that on HHS' webpage here: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09extension.shtml

Essentially, Congress has prohibited HHS from changing the federal poverty guidelines before March 1, 2010, because if they did change them the figures would for the first time have gone down, rather than up. Having the numbers go down would have been good for K-1 sponsors who are just on the cusp of eligibility, but it would have been bad for impoverish people who receive needs-based assistance, so Congress delayed it from happening.

[Alex356 0]

I don't know if anyone has posted this already, but I know that people regularly ask about when the new Federal Poverty Guidelines will come out, and there's an interesting piece about that on HHS' webpage here: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09extension.shtml

Essentially, Congress has prohibited HHS from changing the federal poverty guidelines before March 1, 2010, because if they did change them the figures would for the first time have gone down, rather than up. Having the numbers go down would have been good for K-1 sponsors who are just on the cusp of eligibility, but it would have been bad for impoverish people who receive needs-based assistance, so Congress delayed it from happening.

Thank you for posting! Very informative

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I don't know if anyone has posted this already, but I know that people regularly ask about when the new Federal Poverty Guidelines will come out, and there's an interesting piece about that on HHS' webpage here: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09extension.shtml

Essentially, Congress has prohibited HHS from changing the federal poverty guidelines before March 1, 2010, because if they did change them the figures would for the first time have gone down, rather than up. Having the numbers go down would have been good for K-1 sponsors who are just on the cusp of eligibility, but it would have been bad for impoverish people who receive needs-based assistance, so Congress delayed it from happening.

The poverty guidelines change March 1 every year, nothing new about that.

Reducing the guidelines may help K-1s, etc. but it is disasterous to the "poverty industry" all the people making a living from poor people who need government services. Do you think the people at the food stamp office will be happy that there are less people that need their service? Do you think the goal of the "war on poverty" is to end poverty?

The latest idea, not sure how this will affect K-1s, is simply to declare a percentage of people "impoverished" and increase the amount of money for "fighting poverty" every year based on the census (this year's census is the most contrived ever) Thereby guaranteeing a permanently increasing "need" for the poverty industry.

[ManTra 1]

Thank you for posting! Very informative

informative indeed...u guys are goin an outstanding job on VJ..

[chrisser 0]

excellent read, thanks for the research!

[Mike B. 231]

The poverty guidelines change March 1 every year, nothing new about that.

Reducing the guidelines may help K-1s, etc. but it is disasterous to the "poverty industry" all the people making a living from poor people who need government services. Do you think the people at the food stamp office will be happy that there are less people that need their service? Do you think the goal of the "war on poverty" is to end poverty?

The latest idea, not sure how this will affect K-1s, is simply to declare a percentage of people "impoverished" and increase the amount of money for "fighting poverty" every year based on the census (this year's census is the most contrived ever) Thereby guaranteeing a permanently increasing "need" for the poverty industry.

The poverty guidelines don't change on March 1 every year. For example, they last changed on January 23, 2009. It looks like Congress again acted to prevent HHS from releasing the new guidelines, this time until March 31.

This is off topic, but the federal poverty guidelines have absolutely nothing to do with poverty at this point, and are probably the most maligned government statistic in the US. They are based off the antiquated idea that the poverty should be determined by how much a family needs to spend on the "meager meal" that is made mostly of beef. That may have made sense 100 years ago, but nowadays beef is a very small percentage of the average family's budget. Housing, health care, and education are the big expenses of today's family, but they are totally ignored when calculating the poverty guidelines. For decades people have talked about finally using other products as indices of the cost of living, but it's never been done. I believe that for the first time this year HHS plans on publishing data on what the federal poverty guidelines would look like if we stopped pretending that the cost of beef is the single most important economic factor in the United States.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

This is off topic, but the federal poverty guidelines have absolutely nothing to do with poverty at this point, and are probably the most maligned government statistic in the US. They are based off the antiquated idea that the poverty should be determined by how much a family needs to spend on the "meager meal" that is made mostly of beef. That may have made sense 100 years ago, but nowadays beef is a very small percentage of the average family's budget. Housing, health care, and education are the big expenses of today's family, but they are totally ignored when calculating the poverty guidelines. For decades people have talked about finally using other products as indices of the cost of living, but it's never been done. I believe that for the first time this year HHS plans on publishing data on what the federal poverty guidelines would look like if we stopped pretending that the cost of beef is the single most important economic factor in the United States.

I agree that the poverty guidelines are a weak measurement of poverty.

The poverty guidelines are based on the poverty threshold, which in turn is based on the Consumer Price Index. They haven't been based primarily on food costs since the early 1960's.

[Mike B. 231]

I agree that the poverty guidelines are a weak measurement of poverty.

The poverty guidelines are based on the poverty threshold, which in turn is based on the Consumer Price Index. They haven't been based primarily on food costs since the early 1960's.

Really? I was under the impression that the CPI was still "beef-heavy" due to the meager meal idea from way back when. If that's not the case, thanks for correcting me.

In any event, I don't think that there is anyone who seriously defends the poverty guidelines as a good measure of poverty, not even in HHS, which is why HHS is planning on publishing a "this is what it should really be" number this year.

[tedz 0]

is it out yet?

[L&V 1]

The 2009 poverty guideline was "extended" 3 times....with the latest extension dated to May 31, 2010. So, look out for either another extension signed by President Obama or perhaps a new 2010 poverty guideline soon.