New Poverty Measure Stirs Discussion - Wednesday, June 16, 2010
It has been months since the U.S. Census Bureau announced it would introduce a new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) next year, not to replace the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) but to create another tool for assessing household financial security nationwide. Because the existing poverty measurement is not well understood, fails to take into account regional cost differences, and is based on an outdated spending model that does not reflect well the expenses that make up most modern families' costliest needs (e.g., child care, health care, etc.), the supplemental measure would provide added clarity for policy decisions.
Recently, the SPM has become the subject of some debate and, according to poverty experts, a good deal of misunderstanding. Influential Washington Post and Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson, for example, suggested in a column that the new measure itself is misleading, while other commentators similarly criticized the measure. The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Michael Laracy responded to the critiques in an online post that lays out why the SPM is both needed and nonpartisan:
[The FPL is] based on spending patterns typical of the 1950s, when food accounted for one-third of the average family's expenses--compared with one-seventh today. ... The current poverty measure counts only pre-tax income and ignores other sources of support that were not in place when the measure was adopted. These include the Earned Income Tax Credit for low income workers, food stamps, Medicaid and housing and energy subsidies. ...The SPM is based on the recommendations of a non-partisan panel and is modeled on the alternative poverty measure adopted in New York City by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
While eligibility for programs will continue to be determined by the FPL, advocates for low-income families hope that the information in the SPM can help inform policy makers about the real needs people in their communities face. To learn more about why the Supplemental Poverty Measure was created, click here.
