Summary: The official U.S. poverty measure, as devised three decades ago, compares a family's income with the level believed necessary to provide a minimum standard of living. This measure is widely used as an indicator of the economic well-being of the population, for analysis of government policies, and in allocating benefits in social welfare programs, but it has not changed significantly since 1965. During the past 20 years, researchers have questioned the accuracy of the measurement of family resources for this purpose, as well as the appropriateness of the level of income used to define poverty. GAO found that some of the issues involved in updating the poverty measure seem to be fairly well resolved in the scientific community. Although a family's economic resources are only a proxy for its ability to obtain an adequate standard of living, they clearly provide the most reliable means of assessing and comparing families' ability to meet their needs. Similarly, GAO found agreement that the measure of a family's economic resources should include near-money government benefits and exclude income and payroll taxes. But additional discussion and research may be needed on other issues, such as how to incorporate government medical assistance in a measure of disposable income and how to accommodate geographical differences--and changes--in the cost of living. Updating the thresholds, in contrast, poses issues for which scientific evidence can only bracket a set of alternatives. Determining what constitutes a minimally adequate standard of living is, in essence, a social judgment that should reflect the views of both society and experts.
