Poverty Formula Revised: New Method Doubles Number Of Elderly Poor

[laughingliberal]

WASHINGTON — The government took steps Tuesday to highlight the increasing numbers of poor Americans, adopting a revised formula that is expected to double the number of older people classified as living in poverty to nearly 1 in 5.

Under the new formula, overall poverty is expected to increase from 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, to 15.8 percent, or 47.4 million, mostly due to rising expenses from medical care and other factors.

The new measure will not replace the official poverty rate but will be published alongside the traditional figure next year as a "supplement" for federal agencies and state governments, according to the directive announced Tuesday by the Commerce Department and White House.

Demographers say the main impact of the change will be to highlight higher numbers of Americans in poverty than previously known, particularly among Americans 65 and over. Because it will be considered a supplemental measure, however, it will not change how billions of federal dollars for the poor are distributed for health, housing, nutrition and child-care benefits. <snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/poverty-formula-revised-n_n_483594.html

Would be nice if it would lead to more help for people. What are they saying? We're now going to admit more people are poor but we aren't going to deal with it? Is there some way this would lead to changes in the social safety net, eventually?

[CornerBar]

1. Poverty

"If we are serious about ending poverty, we have to be serious about ending
the systems that create poverty by robbing the poor of their common wealth,
livelihoods and incomes. Before we can make poverty history, we need to get
the history of poverty right. It¹s not about how much wealthy nations can
give, so much as how much less they can take."

http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc/shiva112305.cfm

K&R

[laughingliberal]

3. No argument here. nt

[damntexdem]

2. They should be ashamed -- throwing all those older people into poverty!

;-)

Seriously, poverty in America is generally underreported. But the elderly get smeared as "greedy geezers," with no attention to the high poverty rates.

[laughingliberal]

4. The guidelines for the federal poverty levels are horribly draconian. nt