The 2007 HHS Poverty Guidelines

The following has been excepted from the Department of Health and Human Services webpage announcing the 2007 Poverty Guidelines.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services the The poverty guidelines are sometimes loosely referred to as the “federal poverty level” (FPL), but that phrase is ambiguous and should be avoided, especially in situations (e.g., legislative or administrative) where precision is important.

They say that there are two slightly different versions of the federal poverty measure:

• The poverty thresholds, and
• The poverty guidelines.

The poverty thresholds are the original version of the federal poverty measure. They are updated each year by the Census Bureau. The thresholds are used mainly for statistical purposes — for instance, preparing estimates of the number of Americans in poverty each year. (In other words, all official poverty population figures are calculated using the poverty thresholds, not the guidelines.) Poverty thresholds since 1980 and weighted average poverty thresholds since 1959 are available on the Census Bureau’s Web site. For an example of how the Census Bureau applies the thresholds to a family’s income to determine its poverty status, see “How the Census Bureau Measures Poverty” on the Census Bureau’s web site.

The poverty guidelines are the other version of the federal poverty measure. They are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The guidelines are a simplification of the poverty thresholds for use for administrative purposes — for instance, determining financial eligibility for certain federal programs. (The full text of the Federal Register notice with the 2007 poverty guidelines is available.)

To see the complete coverage: Dept HHS
The Oregon Center for Public Policy has a clearer picture of the Guidelines.

For your interest here is a list of Poverty Research Centers:

• The National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan
• The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
• The Kentucky Center for Poverty Research at the University of Kentucky
• The West Coast Poverty Research Center at the University of Washington
• The Joint Center for Poverty Research of Northwestern University and the University of Chicago
• The RUPRI Rural Poverty Research Center at the University of Missouri