Article Helps to Define the Federal Poverty Level
Friday, June 29, 2018
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Section: TPCA & Beyond, June/July 2018




(from George Washington University)

A recent article from the George Washington University online MPH program seeks to bring clarity to several issues surrounding the federal poverty level.

“Poverty means lacking sufficient money for your basic needs, but what does that really look like and how do we measure it in the United States? There are two ways the government defines poverty: poverty thresholds and poverty guidelines. While thresholds are used for statistical purposes like collecting data on poverty rates for the census, the guidelines are used administratively to determine eligibility for federal programs. When we think of ‘poverty,’ we are most likely thinking about poverty thresholds. And when we talk about the ‘federal poverty level (FPL),’ we are referring to poverty guidelines.”

Click here to read the article.

Article courtesy of MPH@GW, the online MPH program from the George Washington University.