The Poverty Line
Proposal for Revised Poverty Level
This proposal suggests improvements to the current poverty measurement system, which has remained mostly unchanged since the 1960s. You can read the full proposal here.
- Establish thresholds based on a budget for food, clothing, and shelter, using real consumer data.
- Update the thresholds annually with the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U).
- Use a more nuanced family size adjustment and consider regional cost of living, but the latter requires better data.
- Include non-cash benefits like food stamps and housing subsidies in the calculation of family resources.
- Subtract taxes and necessary work-related expenses from family income to provide a more accurate reflection of what is available for basic needs.
- Account for out-of-pocket medical expenses in the poverty calculation, including estimates for insurance premiums and medical services for those without coverage.
- Use standard spending patterns to estimate costs for those without health insurance.
- The new measure is intended for statistical purposes, not to determine eligibility for government programs, which should still follow current poverty guidelines.
- Include foster children in the family unit and consider cohabiting couples with children as a family.
- Develop better data on geographic cost variations, medical care costs, housing, and income reporting.
- Improve surveys like the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and implement the American Community Survey to provide more accurate data.
This proposal is significant because:
- It addresses long-standing issues with the current poverty measurement system.
- It proposes a more comprehensive and accurate way to measure poverty.
- It recognizes the complexity of poverty and the need for nuanced measurement.
- It emphasizes the importance of ongoing research to improve poverty measurement.
- While acknowledging that an ideal measure may not be immediately achievable, it advocates for significant improvements that can be implemented now.