‘Poverty threshold’ update sought

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Aug 11, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Members of the U.S. Congress are seeking to update the federal “poverty threshold” and measure figures that determine at what income level a household is considered poor.

Backers say the change will more accurately define poverty in America and show that the current measure underestimates the problem.

Opponents say the change is an attempt to raise support for wasteful spending on social services.

The “poverty threshold” — the line by which people’s incomes are measured to determine their economic status — is what the federal government uses to determine who receives how much in services.

“If we don’t have a sensible, reasonable baseline for where to begin our measurement, we are really just running in circles like we’ve done for generations in our state,” said Adren Wilson, a former Department of Social Services assistant secretary.

At stake for Louisiana are billions of dollars in aid used to pay for social services, such as food stamps, cash benefits, and child care assistance.

Shifting the definition could increase or decrease the number of Louisiana families eligible for aid. Because the federal government only pays part of the cost for those services, that could mean an increase or decrease in the need for Louisiana taxpayers to support social services.

“With Louisiana presently having one of the highest poverty rates in the country, it makes sense that every Louisiana citizen would want to embrace a modernization of the federal poverty measure,” Wilson said.

A recent graduate of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Wilson helped create the state’s Solutions to Poverty program.

Drew Murray, the director of DSS’s Solutions to Poverty program, said accurately defining families’ needs will help the agency make decisions on where to invest.

For example, the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, grant provides cash assistance for low-income families as well as a number of programs that encourage self-sufficiency, such as a savings program for people who want to buy a home.

Murray said the general consensus is that with a more sensitive and more accurate poverty measure, millions more people across the country would be considered officially poor.

“However, whether the number of people right now is undercounted or overcounted, it’s still too many,” Murray said. “There still are high costs associated with our state’s very high rate of poverty.”