How the poverty figures are wrong

The Hill -The official poverty measure is a very poor indicator of economic hardship in this country. In 2018, the Federal Poverty Level for a family of four in the mainland United States was $25,100 — an abysmally low standard of living. 

The problem of people living with poverty and struggling to make ends meet is far more widespread than the official poverty rate — measured with a 50-year old yardstick — would indicate.

A somewhat clearer indicator is the Supplemental Poverty Measure. While the official poverty measure counts only cash income, the SPM also counts social assistance like the Earned Income Tax Credit and SNAP, as well as out-of-pocket expenses for health care and work and regional differences in costs of living. When these factors are included, the overall poverty rate rises to 13.1 percent, or about 42.8 million people.

But even that number is too low. The truth is, millions more low-income people — defined in many official programs as those living at between one and two times the official poverty level — still hover at the edges of poverty, just one illness or divorce or job loss away from disaster.