The costs of calulating poverty

If you’re raising a family of four on $26K, you may believe that your current checkbook balance is enough to qualify your household for federal assistance.  And in New York, at least, you’d be right.  Beginning with recommendations provided by the National Academy of Sciences, NYC set out to reform their decades-old guidelines by issuing new measures of poverty based on 2006 census data.  The new calculations go a step further than traditional measures, considering living expenses such as healthcare and childcare costs.  The result, according to backers of the new formula, is a more realistic picture of today’s world. They’re pushing the federal government to make a similar change.

To read the full article and listen to the story on National Public Radio, please click here.

To see the working paper on which this story was based, click here.