Supplemental Poverty Measure

Posted on November 16, 2012 by townsend

• Ranks of poor Americans at record high even with aid, By Frank Bass, November 14, 2012, Businessweek: “The ranks of poor Americans remained at a record high number last year, even after government-aid programs such as food stamps, housing vouchers and heating subsidies were included, the U.S. Census Bureau said today. The bureau said 49.7 million Americans, or 16.1 percent, are in poverty, up from 49.1 million, or 16 percent, in 2010, according to a new measure the government is using to supplement the official figures released in September. The new method, designed to offer a more comprehensive measure of poverty, includes government aid as income, while subtracting child-care costs, work-related expenses and medical out-of-pocket fees. The official measure, which includes only pretax cash income and is used to determine eligibility for aid programs, put the poverty rate at 15.1 percent, the bureau said…”
• Alternative measure sees more people living in poverty, By Ben Casselman, November 14, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “There were 46.2 million people living in poverty in America last year. Unless there were 49.7 million. Earlier this fall, the Census Bureau released its annual look at poverty in the U.S. According to that report, there were 46.2 million people in 2011 living below the poverty line of about $23,000 for a family of four. The official poverty rate was 15.0%. But on Wednesday, the Census put out another report showing that the official figures leave out some 3.5 million people whom many experts argue should properly be counted as ‘poor.’ If those people were included, the poverty rate would be 16.1%…”
• Latinos poorer than official estimate, By Emily Deruy, November 15, 2012, ABC News: “A new Census measure shows that nearly 50 million people in the United States live below the poverty level, including nearly three in ten Latinos. The new number, released on Wednesday by the Census Bureau, is part of a new supplemental poverty measure that takes into account medical costs and work-related expenses. From 2009 to 2011, the average official poverty rate was 15 percent. Using the supplemental measure, the poverty rate jumps to 15.8 percent. Officials estimated that about 15.1 percent of the population, or 46.6 million people, were below the poverty line in 2011. With the supplemental measure, that number jumps to 49.7 million, or 16.1 percent of the population…”