Obama Phone Info: "Poverty Guidelines" Qualifications
You may be qualified for the Obama Phone (Lifeline Program) if you meet certain "poverty guidelines" for Americans. Here is some information from the Department of Health and Human services.
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The poverty guidelines may be formally referenced as “the poverty guidelines
updated periodically in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2).”
2012 HHS Poverty Guidelines
One Version of the [U.S.] Federal Poverty Measure (*see source below)
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 (although they were
originally developed
by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration). 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 1973 (and for selected earlier years) 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
Federal
Register notice of the 2012 poverty guidelines is available.
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.
Key differences between poverty thresholds and poverty guidelines are outlined
in a table under Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs). See also the discussion
of this topic on the Institute for Research on Poverty’s web site.
NOTE: The poverty guideline figures below are NOT the figures
the Census Bureau uses to calculate the number of poor persons.
The figures that the Census Bureau uses are the
poverty
thresholds.
2012 Poverty Guidelines for the
48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia
Persons in
family/household |
Poverty guideline |
| 1 |
$11,170 |
| 2 |
15,130 |
| 3 |
19,090 |
| 4 |
23,050 |
| 5 |
27,010 |
| 6 |
30,970 |
| 7 |
34,930 |
| 8 |
38,890 |
For families/households with more than 8 persons,
add $3,960 for each additional person. |
2012 Poverty Guidelines for
Alaska
Persons in
family/household |
Poverty guideline |
| 1 |
$13,970 |
| 2 |
18,920 |
| 3 |
23,870 |
| 4 |
28,820 |
| 5 |
33,770 |
| 6 |
38,720 |
| 7 |
43,670 |
| 8 |
48,620 |
For families/households with more than 8 persons,
add $4,950 for each additional person. |
2012 Poverty Guidelines for
Hawaii
Persons in
family/household |
Poverty guideline |
| 1 |
$12,860 |
| 2 |
17,410 |
| 3 |
21,960 |
| 4 |
26,510 |
| 5 |
31,060 |
| 6 |
35,610 |
| 7 |
40,160 |
| 8 |
44,710 |
For families/households with more than 8 persons,
add $4,550 for each additional person. |
SOURCE: Federal Register, Vol. 77, No.
17, January 26, 2012, pp. 4034-4035
The separate poverty guidelines for Alaska and Hawaii reflect Office of Economic
Opportunity administrative practice beginning in the 1966-1970 period.
Note that the poverty thresholds — the original version of the
poverty measure — have never had separate figures for Alaska and
Hawaii. The poverty guidelines are not defined for Puerto Rico, the
U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands,
the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, and Palau. In cases in which a Federal program using the poverty
guidelines serves any of those jurisdictions, the Federal office which
administers the program is responsible for deciding whether to use the
contiguous-states-and-D.C. guidelines for those jurisdictions or to follow
some other procedure.
The poverty guidelines apply to both aged and non-aged units. The
guidelines have never had an aged/non-aged distinction; only the Census Bureau
(statistical) poverty thresholds have separate figures for aged and non-aged
one-person and two-person units.
Programs using the guidelines (or percentage multiples of the guidelines
— for instance, 125 percent or 185 percent of the guidelines) in determining
eligibility include Head Start, the Food Stamp Program, the National School
Lunch Program, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and the
Children’s Health Insurance Program. Note that in general, cash
public assistance programs (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and
Supplemental Security Income) do NOT use the poverty guidelines in determining
eligibility. The Earned Income Tax Credit program also does NOT use
the poverty guidelines to determine eligibility. For a more detailed
list of programs that do and don’t use the guidelines, see the
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
The poverty guidelines (unlike the poverty thresholds) are designated by
the year in which they are issued. For instance, the guidelines issued
in January 2012 are designated the 2012 poverty guidelines. However,
the 2012 HHS poverty guidelines only reflect price changes through calendar
year 2011; accordingly, they are approximately equal to the Census Bureau
poverty thresholds for calendar year 2011. (The 2011 thresholds are
expected to be issued in final form in September 2012; a preliminary version
of the 2011 thresholds is now available from the Census Bureau.) The computations for the 2012 poverty
guidelines are available.
*The
poverty guidelines may be formally referenced as “the poverty guidelines
updated periodically in the
Federal Register by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2).”
