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The Aging Network
Information Memoranda
Federal Register Notice: 2000 HHS Poverty Guidelines
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[Federal Register: February 15, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 31)]
[Notices] [Page 7555-7557]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr15fe00-83]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Office of the Secretary
Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines
AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice provides an update of the HHS poverty guidelines
to account for last (calendar) year's increase in prices as measured
by the Consumer Price Index.
EFFECTIVE DATE: These guidelines go into effect on the day they
are published (unless an office administering a program using
the guidelines specifies a different effective date for that particular
program.)
ADDRESS: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation,
Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), Washington, DC 20201.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about how the
poverty guidelines are used in a particular program, contact the
Federal (or other) office which is responsible for that program.
For general information about the poverty guidelines (but NOT
for information about a particular program--such as the Hill-Burton
Uncompensated Services Program--that uses the poverty guidelines),
contact Gordon Fisher, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning
and Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health
and Human Services, Washington, DC 20201--telephone: (202) 690-5880;
persons with Internet access may visit the poverty guidelines
Internet site at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/poverty.htm.
For information about the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services
Program (no-fee or reduced-fee health care services at certain
hospitals and other health care facilities for certain persons
unable
to pay for such care), contact the Office of the Director, Division
of
Facilities Compliance and Recovery, HRSA, HHS, Room 10C-16, Parklawn
Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857--telephone:
(301) 443-5656 or 1-800-638-0742 (for callers outside Maryland)
or 1- 800-492-0359 (for callers in Maryland); persons with Internet
access may visit the Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery
Internet home page site at http://www.hrsa.gov/osp/dfcr.
The Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery notes that
as set by 42 CFR 124.505(b), the effective date of this update
of the poverty guidelines for facilities obligated under the Hill-Burton
Uncompensated Services Program is sixty days from the date of
this publication.
For information about the percentage multiple of the poverty
guidelines to be used on immigration forms such as INS Form I-864,
Affidavit of Support, contact the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service. To obtain information on the most recent applicable poverty
guidelines from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, call
1-800- 375-5283. Persons with Internet access may obtain the information
from the Immigration and Naturalization Service Internet site
at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/howdoi/affsupp.htm.
For information about the Department of Labor's Lower Living
Standard Income Level (a self-sufficiency criterion with the poverty
guidelines for certain Workforce Investment Act employment and
training programs), contact Ronald E. Putz, U.S. Department of
Labor--telephone: (202) 219-7694, extension 142--e-mail: rputz@doleta.gov.
For information about the number of people in poverty (since
1959)
or about the Census Bureau (statistical) poverty thresholds, contact
the HHES Division, Room 1472, Federal Office Building #3, U.S.
Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC 20233--telephone: (301) 457-3242--
or send e-mail to hhes-info@census.gov;
persons with Internet access may visit the Poverty section of
the Census Bureau's World Wide Web site at
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html.
2000 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the
District of Columbia
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Poverty
Size of family unit guideline
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1........................................................... $
8,350
2........................................................... 11,250
3........................................................... 14,150
4........................................................... 17,050
5........................................................... 19,950
6........................................................... 22,850
7........................................................... 25,750
8........................................................... 28,650
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For family units with more than 8 members, add $2,900 for each
additional member. (The same increment applies to smaller family
sizes also, as can be seen in the figures above.)
[[Page 7556]]
2000 Poverty Guidelines for Alaska
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Poverty
Size of family unit guideline
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1........................................................... $10,430
2........................................................... 14,060
3........................................................... 17,690
4........................................................... 21,320
5........................................................... 24,950
6........................................................... 28,580
7........................................................... 32,210
8........................................................... 35,840
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For family units with more than 8 members, add $3,630 for each
additional member. (The same increment applies to smaller family
sizes also, as can be seen in the figures above.)
2000 Poverty Guidelines for Hawaii
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Poverty
Size of family unit guideline
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1..................................................... $ 9,590
2..................................................... 12,930
3..................................................... 16,270
4..................................................... 19,610
5..................................................... 22,950
6..................................................... 26,290
7..................................................... 29,630
8..................................................... 32,970
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For family units with more than 8 members, add $3,340 for each
additional member. (The same increment applies to smaller family
sizes also, as can be seen in the figures above.)
(Separate poverty guideline figures for Alaska and Hawaii reflect
Office of Economic Opportunity administrative practice beginning
in the 1966-1970 period. Note that the Census Bureau poverty
thresholds--the primary 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-DC guidelines
for those jurisdictions or to follow some other procedure.)
The preceding figures are the 2000 update of the poverty guidelines
required by section 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation
Act (OBRA) of 1981 (Pub. L. 97-35). As required by law, this update
reflects last year's change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U);
it was done using the same procedure used in previous years. Section
673(2) of OBRA-1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) requires the use of the
poverty guidelines as an eligibility criterion for the Community
Services Block Grant program. The poverty guidelines are also
used as an eligibility criterion by a number of other Federal
programs (both HHS and non-HHS). Due to confusing legislative
language dating back to 1972, the poverty guidelines have sometimes
been mistakenly referred to
as the ``OMB'' (Office of Management and Budget) poverty guidelines
or poverty line. In fact, OMB has never issued the guidelines;
the guidelines are issued each year by the Department of Health
and Human Services (formerly by the Office of Economic Opportunity/Community
Services Administration). The poverty guidelines may be formally
referenced as ``the poverty guidelines updated annually in the
Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
under authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2).'' The poverty guidelines
are a simplified version of the Federal Government's statistical
poverty thresholds used by the Bureau of the Census to prepare
its statistical estimates of the number of persons and families
in poverty. The poverty guidelines issued by the Department of
Health and Human Services are used for administrative purposes--for
instance, for determining whether a person or family is financially
eligible for assistance or services under a particular Federal
program. The poverty thresholds are used primarily for statistical
purposes. Since the poverty guidelines in this notice--the 2000
guidelines--reflect price changes through calendar year 1999,
they are approximately equal to the poverty thresholds for calendar
year 1999 which the Census Bureau expects to issue in September
or October 2000. (A preliminary version of the 1999 thresholds
is now available
from the Census Bureau.)
In certain cases, as noted in the relevant authorizing legislation
or program regulations, a program uses the poverty guidelines
as only one of several eligibility criteria, or uses a percentage
multiple of the guidelines (for example, 125 percent or 185 percent
of the
guidelines.) Non-Federal organizations which use the poverty guidelines
under their own authority in non-Federally-funded activities also
have the option of choosing to use a percentage multiple of the
guidelines such as 125 percent or 185 percent.
While many programs use the guidelines to classify persons or
families as either eligible or ineligible, some other programs
use the guidelines for the purpose of giving priority to lower-income
persons or families in the provision of assistance or services.
In some cases, these poverty guidelines may not become effective
for a particular program until a regulation or notice specifically
applying to the program in question has been issued.
The poverty guidelines given above should be used for both farm
and non-farm families. Similarly, these guidelines should be used
for both aged and non-aged units. The poverty 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.
Definitions
There is no universal administrative definition of ``family,''
``family unit,'' or ``household'' that is valid for all programs
that
use the poverty guidelines. Federal programs in some cases use
administrative definitions that differ somewhat from the statistical
definitions given below; the Federal office which administers
a program has the responsibility for making decisions about administrative
definitions. Similarly, non-Federal organizations which use the
poverty guidelines in non-Federally-funded activities may use
administrative definitions that differ from the statistical definitions
given below. In either case, to find out the precise definitions
used by a particular program, one must consult the office or organization
administering the program in question.
The following statistical definitions (derived for the most part
from language used in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population
Reports, Series P60-185 and earlier reports in the same series)
are made available for illustrative purposes only; in other words,
these statistical definitions are not binding for administrative
purposes.
(a) Family. A family is a group of two or more persons related
by
birth, marriage, or adoption who live together; all such related
persons are considered as members of one family. For instance,
if an older married couple, their daughter and her husband and
two children, and the older couple's nephew all lived in the same
house or apartment, they would all be considered members of a
single family. (b) Unrelated individual. An unrelated individual
is a person 15 years old or over (other than an inmate of an institution)
who is not living with [[Page 7557]] any relatives. An unrelated
individual may be the only person living in a house or apartment,
or may be living in a house or apartment (or in group quarters
such as a rooming house) in which one or more persons also live
who are not related to the individual in question by birth, marriage,
or adoption. Examples of unrelated individuals residing with others
include a lodger, a foster child, a ward, or an employee.
(c) Household. As defined by the Bureau of the Census for
statistical purposes, a household consists of all the persons
who
occupy a housing unit (house or apartment), whether they are related
to each other or not. If a family and an unrelated individual,
or two unrelated individuals, are living in the same housing unit,
they would constitute two family units (see next item), but only
one household. Some programs, such as the Food Stamp Program and
the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, employ administrative
variations of the ``household'' concept in determining income
eligibility. A number of other programs use administrative variations
of the ``family'' concept in determining income eligibility. Depending
on the precise program definition used, programs using a ``family''
concept would generally apply the poverty guidelines separately
to each family and/or unrelated individual within a household
if the household includes more than one family and/or unrelated
individual.
(d) Family Unit. ``Family unit'' is not an official U.S. Bureau
of
the Census term, although it has been used in the poverty guidelines
Federal Register notice since 1978. As used here, either an unrelated
individual or a family (as defined above) constitutes a family
unit. In other words, a family unit of size one is an unrelated
individual, while a family unit of two/three/etc. is the same
as a family of two/ three/etc. Note that this notice no longer
provides a definition of ``income.'' This is for two reasons.
First, there is no universal administrative definition of ``income''
that is valid for all programs that use the poverty guidelines.
Second, in the past there has been confusion regarding important
differences between the statistical definition of income and various
administrative definitions of ``income'' or ``countable income.''
The precise definition of ``income'' for a particular program
is very sensitive to the specific needs and purposes of that program.
To determine, for example, whether or not taxes, college scholarships,
or other particular types of income should be counted as ``income''
in determining eligibility for a specific program, one must consult
the office or organization
administering the program in question; that office or organization
has the responsibility for making decisions about the definition
of
``income'' used by the program (to the extent that the definition
is
not already contained in legislation or regulations).
Dated: February 9, 2000.
Donna E. Shalala,
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
[FR Doc. 00-3478 Filed 2-10-00; 2:30 pm]
BILLING CODE 4154-05-P
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